Couture Kitchen: Cranberry Upside-Down Deliciousness

Despite my health goals for 2010, I cannot stifle the cooking / baking bug that has bitten me in the past year. I look forward to cooking up deliciousness for M and I. Much to the chagrin of both our waistbands, I tend to lean towards the sweeter side of things when it comes to the kitchen.

I've started taking my Cooking Light subscription a bit more seriously nowadays. Though I realize that baked goods can rarely be healthy, I figure that they must be slightly better for us if feature in Cooking Light!

Voila...the Couture Kitchen debut of Cranberry Upside-Down Cake (adapted from Cooking Light magazine 2009)

Cranberries and brown sugar, and butter...oh my!

Looking forward to my KitchenAid Stand Mixer...

Ingredients

Topping:

Cooking Spary

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter

6 oz. fresh or frozen, thawed cranberries

Cake:

1.5 cups of all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter (softened)

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup 1% low-fat milk

2 large egg whites

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. To prepare topping, lightly coat 9-inch roun cake pan with cooking spray. (I only had an 8 inch pan so I went with it. I ended up just slicing off the top of the cake after baking due to some overflow). Heat brown sugar and 2 tbsp butter in small saucepan over medium heat until butter melts, stirring occassionally. Pour into prepared cake pan (cover bottom completely) and arrange cranberries over sugar.

3. To prepare cake, combine flour, baking powder, and salt in small mixing bowl (stir lightly with whisk). Place granulated sugar and butter in bowl; beat with mixer at medium speed until fluffy. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each. Beat in vanilla. Fold flour mixture into sugar mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

4. Beat egg whites in separate bowl with clean, dry beaters until stiff peaks form. (About 4 minutes) Gently fold the egg whites into the batter. Spoon batter over cranberries, spreading evenly. Bake for 55 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

5. Cool in pan for 15 minutes. Loosen cake from sides of pan using knife. Place a sesrving plate upside down on top of cake, and invert cake pan onto plate. Let stand 5 minutes and remove pan. Serve warm. Yield 12 servings. (Only 252 calories per slice)

Chow down!

The outcome is a light fluffy sweet cake, topped with an excellent combination of tart from the cranberries and toffee sweet from the brown sugar and butter.

What are you "light" recipes for the new year?