Chocolate Almond Upside-Down Cake

While still home on break, I turned to another of my recipe books, Chocolate and Vanilla by pastry chef Gale Gand and  Lisa Weiss, for some excellent recipes that illustrate the versatility of those two classic flavors. Not in combination, mind you. The book is literally split between vanilla and chocolate--you need to turn the book over to switch from one to the other. Each flavor gets its own introduction and historical background, followed by a group of recipes employing the flavors in all their forms, from Dutch-processed cocoa powder to vanilla beans.

One of the recipes that I've become particular fond of celebrates the classic combination of  chocolate and almonds. The Chocolate Almond Upside-Down Cake is a dark, moist chocolate cake that is topped (once you flip it over)  with rich caramel and toasted almonds. omgah so good. Gale Gand flat out rejects the traditional upside-down cake with those cherries and pineapple all up in it. Blah. This cake looks much better. Dark and sexy, even, to use my friend's words.






Funny story: this cake has become the "Oh, Matt's home?" cake at the school where my mom teaches. She asked if I could make a cake  for her to bring in (for a perfectly balanced  teacher breakfast?) a while ago, but since it got such great reviews that first time I try to make one to send in to the teacher's lounge whenever I come home. Mom says it's usually gone by lunchtime.

Almond and caramel topping & a convenient cake carrier cover (10 pts for super-mega-alliteration)