Mango Upside Down Cake

We were so anxious to eat this cake that I didn't get any pictures until it was nearly gone!

Let me start off by saying that I am not a huge fruit fan, it's very rare that I will just eat a piece of fruit. BUT, I do love fruit smoothies, fruit mixed into my oatmeal, sliced bananas in my cereal, and I definitely love fruit in pies and cakes! This is a recipe that I came up with years ago and I haven't made it in quite a while. A sweet neighbor of ours recently gave us 4 beautiful mangoes and I just couldn't resist making this cake. I love the slight crunch on the outer edge of the cake, the mangoes are perfectly sweet, and the cake itself is incredibly soft and fluffy, in the words of my husband, "this is the perfect cake, I really don't know why you would even want to make any other white cake recipe". Plus, this is super simple and takes less than an hour from start to finish!

Mango Upside Down Cake

3-4 mangoes, peeled and cut into strips

1 stick butter3/4 C. brown sugar (packed)

-Grease 8" round cake pan

1.  In small saucepan melt together butter and brown sugar on medium heat.  Add mangoes and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring often.  Remove mangoes with slotted spoon and place on bottom of greased cake pan.  Allow butter and sugar to continue to simmer for about 3 minutes or until it becomes a syrup.  Remove from heat and set aside.

1 stick butter, softened3/4 C. white sugar (you can reduce the amount to 1/2 C. if you'd like)2 large eggs1 tsp. vanilla extract1 2/3 C. all-purpose flour2 tsp. baking powderPinch of salt3/4 C. milk

-Preheat oven to 350 F

2. In medium bowl beat together butter and sugar until mixed, it may be slightly lumpy.  Add in eggs and vanilla and mix in until blended.
3. Add 1 cup of the flour, 1 tsp of the baking powder, the salt and half of the milk and beat until blended.  Add in remaining flour, baking powder and milk and mix until blended.
4. Carefully, and slowly, cover the mangoes with cake batter.
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes, rotate half-way through, until top is a light golden color and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  
6. Let cool on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes and invert onto a serving plate.  
7. Heat up the syrup on medium heat until warm and pour over cake. Serve cake warm or cool; enjoy!

p.s. A handy trick to removing the cake from the pan successfully is to go around the edge of the cake with a knife then bang the pan a few times on the counter top to loosen the bottom.