Mandarin Upside Down Cake with Salted Orange Caramel Sauce

First, make the topping

In a small bowl, whisk together melted butter, brown sugar and cream and pour in bottom of pan spreading to cover. Arrange mandarin orange segments in concentric circles over butter and brown sugar mixture, covering the bottom of the pan.

Next, make the cake

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 8-inch cake pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. In another small bowl, whisk together sour cream, 1/2 cup reserved mandarin juice, vanilla and orange extracts. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in medium bowl, whisk to combine and set aside. With an electric or stand mixer, beat butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat again until well combined. Alternately beat in flour mixture and sour cream/juice mixture on low speed until just combined. Gently spoon batter evenly over mandarin segments and spread to cover. Tap filled pan gently on the counter top to remove any air bubbles. Bake cake in preheated oven for 55-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

While cake is baking, prepare the caramel sauce

Pour sugar in to a large heavy bottomed skillet. Over medium heat, whisk the sugar until it begins to crystallize and then melt in to a deep amber color, stirring continuously and scraping any bits off the bottom of the pan while stirring. Reduce heat to low and stir until all sugar is melted. While stirring remove pan from heat, add cubed butter a few cubes at a time and whisk until melted. Add heavy cream, reserved Mandarin Orange juice, orange extract and salt and stir until completely combined. Mixture will bubble and foam but continue to stir until a cohesive sauce forms. Place pan back on warm burner if necessary while whisking in cream, juice, extract and salt. Set caramel aside until ready to serve. If sauce becomes too stiff to pour while waiting for the cake to cool, simply reheat on very low heat until liquefied, adding one to two tablespoons heavy cream to thin if necessary, stirring occasionally.* If mixture has any remaining clumps of sugar, run caramel through a strainer before using.

Finally, cool partially and assemble

Cool cake in pan for 30 minutes. If top of cake (the side with no oranges) is domed, slice off domed portion with a sharp knife so cake will rest flat on serving plate. Run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen cake and invert on to serving platter or cake stand to let cool completely. When ready to serve, slice cake in to individual portions, drizzle with orange sour cream caramel and top with sweetened whipped cream.