This Sweet Corn Upside Down Cake is a twist on a classic using fresh sweet corn all topped with salted caramel and ice cream.

This Sweet Corn Upside Down Cake is a baking experiment that turned out fantastic!

It’s still corn season around here because we had an insane summer.

And man oh man did it mess with our poor farmers.

I try really hard to be a local girl and only use local produce.

Usually, it’s all timed out.

Summer goes, strawberries, then raspberries and tayberries (regional), cherries (and other stone fruits), then blackberries.

Then sunflowers and corn.

Apples follow.

And, then of course, the biggie…pumpkins.

I plan my baking around it all.

All of June the farmers were thrown off because we had 50F weather and rain.

Which we tend to get rain but not that cool of weather and not every day.

Granted, I loved it because it was great baking weather.

The farmers not so much.

So the strawberries were super late because they didn’t get sun.

Then when the sun did decide to show up around the PNW it turned up the dial.

And then the dial broke off.

Giving us the hottest summer on record as far as consecutive days go.

That gave us all the berries and cherries all at once.

I was frantic trying to get all the fruit I could.

Our bottom freezer broke (the fridge part works fine) in the middle of summer so we bought an upright freezer.

Man, I love that thing.

So I was able to freeze some raspberries, blackberries, black currants, gooseberries, and tayberries.

Sunflowers were all messed up this year.

The got the sun but not enough water so they didn’t grow as tall…until all the festivals for them were over.

And we are just now finishing with the sweet corn.

Granted you can always get corn around here until October but it’s a more hearty corn.

It’s not the super sweet corn that everyone loves.

I often rewatch British Bake Off reruns on Netflix.

Even broke down and bought the seasons they no longer have on DVD.

I’m a GBBO nerd, what can I say.

They just happened to be making upside down cake at the time.

Which I thought, well, I make a lot of baked goods with corn, why not upside down cake.

And boy am I glad I got that idea.

Now this is not a cornbread kind of cake.

It’s cake.

That does happen to have some fresh corn in it.

But no cornmeal was used.

It’s basically just cake batter with the corn folded in.

Can you skip adding the corn?

Probably.

But then you are missing out on the corn flavor.

I’ve made a variety of sweet corn baked goods.

I even make sweet corn caramels each year.

So I know I love sweet corn in baked goods and I like it with caramel.

Therefore, having a caramelized sweet corn top with sweet corn cake below sounded like a winner.

And it is.

I did my best to keep some of the corn all together.

Just for a pattern on the cake.

You don’t have to do that but I think it’s fun for effect.

It does not matter how you arrange the corn pieces for taste.

I would know…I’ve made this cake three times now. 🙂

Can you use frozen corn instead?

Yes, you can use frozen if it’s not the time of year for fresh sweet corn.

I would however, NOT use canned corn.

To serve the cake I chose to add some vanilla ice cream and some salted caramel sauce.

I suggest you do the same.

The combo is all sorts of yummy.

P.S. It’s a great day to buy my cookbook Holy Sweet!

Want More Sweet Corn Recipes?

In cake form: Sweet Corn and Berry Sugared Donut Cake

Sweet Corn and Raspberry Layer Cake

A Twist on Shortcake: Sweet Corn Strawberry Cornbread Shortcake

Ice Cream: Sweet Corn and Raspberry Swirl Ice Cream

And for Dinner: Ricotta Corn Lemon Cheese Tortellini