Awake

Jillian Bartolome's Poached Quince Upside Down Cake

Recipe by: Jillian Bartolome

For October's BrightRx, we are focusing on sweet indulgences that are better than Halloween candy. Challenge yourself to make your own gratifying dessert. Pastry Chef Jillian Bartolome has shared a stunning and seasonal Poached Quince Upside Down Cake with us.

Jillian Bartolome is the Executive Pastry Chef at Sightglass Marketplace & Roastery in Los Angeles. Growing up as a first generation American in a Navy family, she has always possessed a love for food and dining. She enrolled at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco before finding her passion for baking and desserts while working at the Michelin-starred Cyrus in Healdsburg. She credits much of her pastry foundation to the time spent at Cyrus, and later at Bouchon Bakery in New York City. Bartolome then relocated to Houston where she earned local recognition as the pastry chef at Common Bond Cafe & Bakery before moving on to Aqui, a celebrated Southeast Asian restaurant. Her exploration of plated desserts and her Filipino heritage at Aqui earned her a spot as semi-finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Pastry Chef of the Year in 2018.

Poached Quince Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

1 1/3 + 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 (scant) teaspoon baking soda
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream

Instructions

1 Using a wooden spoon, combine the softened butter and sugar until homogenous.
2 Stir in one egg at a time, making sure each one is well incorporated before adding the next one. Stir in vanilla.
3 Sift the baking powder, baking soda, flour and salt. Stir the sifted dry ingredients into the butter mixture.
4 Add the sour cream and mix until it is just incorporated.
5 Line the bottom of an 8 inch cake pan with a disc of parchment paper. Arrange quince at the bottom and make sure all surface area is covered. If desired, slice the quince into smaller pieces and fan the pieces around the bottom of the pan.
6 Pour the batter onto the quince and smooth out using a small offset spatula or spoon.
7 Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes, rotate, then bake for another 25 minutes. Pierce the cake with a paring knife to check for doneness, it should come out cleanly.
8 When the cake is done baking, allow it to cool for five minutes. After five minutes, invert the pan onto a cooling rack to release the cake.
9 After cake cools completely, decorate with dollops of creme fraiche and sprinkle chopped candied ginger. When serving, drizzle each slice with Brightland AWAKE olive oil.

For Poached Quince

Ingredients

2-3 quince
6 3/4 cups iced black tea, unsweetened
2 cups sugar
2 large handfuls dried hibiscus flowers
4-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced

Instructions

1 Combine the iced tea, sugar, hibiscus flowers, and ginger in a pot and bring to a full boil.
2 Allow liquid to steep for five minutes then strain. Keep the strained liquid in another pot to poach the quince.
3 Peel, quarter, and core each quince.
4 Bring the strained liquid back up to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and place the quince in. Turn over the quince every five minutes to poach until a paring knife can slide through the fruit.
5 Take the quince off the heat and allow it to cool in the poaching liquid.