Tips for making the perfect upside-down cake

If you scare easily, you probably avoid upside-down cakes. I don't mean you refuse to eat the sticky dessert often decorated with canned pineapple rings and maraschino cherries that is the hallmark of mid-20th-century convenience cuisine. I mean that you won't bake an upside-down cake because you are afraid that when you flip it onto a platter, you will leave half of it in the pan.

Ideally, an upside-down cake is simple and beautiful. Instead of spending time frosting a cake after it is baked, you just sprinkle fruit and sugar on the bottom of a cake pan, spread the batter on top, bake, then invert the warm cake onto a platter shortly after it comes out of the oven. In addition to adding fruit flavor and gooey sweetness, the caramelized fruit becomes a glistening decoration.

The problem, of course, is that as the sugar melts and the fruit softens, the mixture can cling stubbornly to the bottom of the pan. Is there anything worse than working hard to bake a showstopping cake, only to destroy it as you attempt to serve it? If this possibility is preventing you from trying an upside-down cake, here are some tips for success to help you get over your reluctance:

Instead of pineapple in my upside-down cakes, I prefer fruit that is on the tart side, such as rhubarb, to balance the extreme sweetness of melted sugar. Sour cherries are good. So are berries and plums. It's early for local fruit, so I picked up a few stalks of rhubarb at the farmers market to use in my cake.

To make sure mine was as tasty as the fruit topping and sturdy enough to support it, I added some yellow cornmeal and a little lemon zest.

1 cup packed light brown sugar, divided

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

2 cups rhubarb, tough strings removed, cut into ½-inch pieces

1 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1/2 cup sour cream

Makes 8 servings.