In my latest Prepared Pantry newsletter (www.preparedpantry.com) I read about an experiment that Prepared Pantry owner and excellent chef, Dennis Weaver, attempted. The results were incredible, according to everyone he tested it on.

I’m talking about an upside down donut cake. Who doesn’t love donuts, and who doesn’t enjoy a tasty upside down cake? So combining the two was brilliant, don’t you think?

As Dennis introduced his readers to this plate of deliciousness, he first explained that he didn’t have a recipe for it. But he did give clear instructions on how to make the newly created Upside Down Donut Cake:

Step 1: Mix up a batch of donut dough. Recipes abound for donut dough—in cookbooks as well as online. One I really like is a copycat of the Krispy Kreme® glazed donut:

COPYCAT KRISPY KREME DONUTS

2 (1/4 ounce) packages yeast

¼ cup very warm water

1 ½ cups very warm milk (scalded, then cooled)

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1/3 cup shortening [ALICE: I substituted melted butter and the results were super]

5 cups all-purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water in 2 1/2-quart bowl. Add milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening and 2 cups flour. Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in remaining flour until smooth. Cover and let rise until double, approximately 50-60 minutes. (Dough is ready when indentation remains when touched.) Turn dough onto floured surface; roll around lightly to coat with flour.

Step 2: Put your chosen fruit and brown sugar mixture in round pan or a heavy skillet. Per tradition, I really like sliced pineapple with maraschino cherries in the center of each slice (see picture, above). But thinly sliced peaches work great, as do pitted Bing cherries.

Lay the fruit on the skillet bottom. Melt 1/4 cup butter and mix it with 1 cup of brown sugar. Spread the sugar mixture over the fruit.

Step 3: When completely raised, punch down donut dough and form balls.

Step 4: Place donut balls over the brown sugar mixture . No need to get fancy here. The dough is going to squish together. Let the dough rise again and double in size, maybe 45 minutes in a warm kitchen.

Step 5: Bake upside down donut cake in a 350°F degree oven. Dennis didn’t remember how long--every pan would differ anyway. It's like baking a pan of dinner rolls so maybe 20 to 25 minutes. [ALICE: My oven is a little hot, so I only needed to bake this about 19 minutes.]

Step 6: Turn upside down donut cake onto a large serving platter. You're going to have a lot of melted sugar and syrup in your pan. Let it sit until it starts to cool and thicken a little, perhaps 5 to 8 minutes. Don't let it sit too long or you won't be able to get it out of the pan.

Place a serving platter over the pan facedown. Invert the pan and platter together. The cake should fall onto the platter with a plop. Drain or scrape the remaining goo onto the cake. (If you let the cake sit too long, you can return it to the oven for a minute or so to reheat so things will fall away from pan when inverted.)

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We’re hosting a 4^th of July picnic this year and I can see this as the star attraction of the dessert table. If you try it, let me know what you think. Meanwhile, Dennis has inspired me. I think I’ll do a little experimenting of my own (I’ll report back with what works!).