Apple Upside Down Cake

By KSmitherman

Ingredients

• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups white, granulate sugar divided (1/2 cup and 3/4 cup)
• 1 1/2 pounds Braeburn, Jonagold, or Golden Delicious apples (about 4 medium), peeled, quartered, cored, each quarter cut into 2 wedges
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1-9-inch cake pan with 1 1/2-inch high sides

Details

Servings 6
Adapted from simplyrecipes.com

Preparation

Step 1

Last year my father got it in his head to make an apple upside down cake. Every fall our trees are loaded with apples and dad is always looking for excuses to bake with them. Well, he tried three different recipes, and each one turned out with the same problem—they appeared to be cooked, had cooked the proper amount of time as called for by the recipe, the tester came out clean, but when he went to cut into the cake, the inside was gooey. The last time this happened, dad swore like a sailor, threw the whole cake in the sink, and vowed to never attempt an apple upside down cake again. (Ever have days like that?)

and apples on sale at Whole Foods for 99 cents a pound was just too tempting to ignore. Or perhaps it had finally dawned on him (us) that the Granny Smiths we had been using to attempt similar cakes gave off too much liquid to work properly in the recipes. In any case, his perseverance has paid off with this cake. It's terrific! We can't wait to make it again.

1/2 cup boiling water

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter the sides of the cake pan. Line the pan with a 10-inch round of parchment paper. The paper will come up 1/2-inch up the sides of the pan. Butter the parchment paper.

Melt 2 Tbsp butter in a non-stick skillet on medium heat. Add 1/2 cup sugar and cook until sugar dissolves and mixture turns golden brown, stirring occasionally (use a wooden spoon), about 6 minutes. Add apple wedges to the pan and gently stir to distribute the caramel evenly across the apples. Cover the pan and cook until apples release their juices, about 5 minutes. Uncover and cook until apples are tender and caramel thickens and coats the apples, stirring occasionally, about 13 minutes more. Remove apples and caramel sauce and place in the prepared cake pan.

Whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl and set aside. Place cornmeal in a large mixing bowl. Pour 1/2 cup boiling water over the cornmeal and stir to blend. Add 3/4 cup sugar and 6 Tbsps (3/4 stick) butter to the cornmeal mixture. Beat until well blended. Beat in vanilla and eggs. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder mixture alternating with the milk. Pour the batter over the apples in the cake pan.

Makes 6 to 8 servings. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

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I'm french and I love your site full of recipes that are not always that usual in my country. Now that I've been offered cook measures in cups (it's not that easy to find here), I'll be able to make more of your recipes.

Replace the vanilla with bourbon or rum, add in some allspice, cinnamon and cloves and top it off with a homemade caramel. Dee-light-ful!

Now why would he throw perfectly good cake away? In a stainless steel fry pan or cast iron, small pat of unsalted butter (not margarine) medium heat, slice gooey cake into 1/4 or 1/2 in. slices and fry till all most crisp.

Loved the cake and it is great with French Vanilla ice cream. Easy to make too!

Do you think I can substitute the flour (which I assume is white or all purpose) for whole wheat? Only have whole wheat at the moment.

It's so interesting to see how recipes can vary and still come out looking and tasting wonderful! I have made this cake, but substituted a few things to make it gluten and lactose free (almond flour and yogurt), and it works!

I hope your father will not shy away from this one again -it's a great cake and so cool looking! Add some creme fraiche or yogurt to a slice as well.

In my qwest to learn to make really good pie I had a few that ended up on the kitchen floor and in the sink.

Even though it came out good, I was wondering if anyone else had a problem with the caramel sauce. When I added the apples, the caramel froze up. It became really hard. It eventually smoothed out but only by the very end of the 15 minutes of apple cooking time. Did I cook the caramel too long before adding the apples? But then my caramel sauce wasn't as brown as the picture. Did I not cook it enough?

Hi Susan, my father had difficulty with this part of the recipe too. We are going to try to make it again, but using one of the caramel recipes from our

I wouldn't try the cornflakes. If I didn't have access to cornmeal, I might try almond flour as a substitute. Don't know about the proportions though, don't think you would need all of the boiling water. You might also try looking at some of the other

Just made this tonight. SO GOOD!! I loved the cornbreadish taste of the cake. Can't wait to have another piece with my morning coffee. =) I will be making this again FOR SURE! We all loved it (4 year old, 7 year old, daddy and me). Thanx to your Dad for the excellent recipe.

I usually make it with raisins, sugar and cinamonn on the top. Delicious..

I did have one problem making the caramel. It started turning brown, I continued stirring. I noticed some black spots appearing. Hmm..I'm stirring constantly I know it isn't burning. My spoon had started to melt! I had to start over-it was certainly worth losing a spoon!

I just want to say that I made this cake for an afternoon tea with friends and it was fantastic! The apples were soft and caramely and the cake was very fluffy and moist. Thanks very much for a lovely recipe, will make it again!

Hi. I made this yesterday and I can't stop eating it. It's delicious and I also love the cornmeal element. I cooked the sugar and butter over low heat and didn't have any problems but my cake came out lighter in color than your picture which looks better to me. Maybe I need to brown the caramel more or add more? Also, I may add a little cinnamon next time. Even though I love the cake it was almost missing something. Maybe it's just me. Thanks to you and your Dad! I have always been successful with all of the recipes I have tried from this site.

Just wanted to let you know that this cake is the most wonderful,delicious cake that I ever a had.The flavor was buttery and light.I would definitely make this recipe again.I loved it...

Made the cake yesterday. A couple of notes. First I forgot to add the milk to the mixture and I don't think it's that necessary as the cake came out perfect.

I had similar issues with the carmelization issues. On my third try I used brown sugar instead of white, and added a tablespoon of water and this did the trick to get the sugar and butter to mix rather than create something similar to peanut brittle.

I saw this on your website and showed my husband and he BEGGED me to go to the store to get apples to make this. It was delicious. It was pretty time consuming to make but definately worth the effort. I was having some trouble at first making the caramel sauce, it kept turning into little balls in the pan. But i soon realized on the second try that the pan had to be hot hot in order for it to remain sauce-like. Awesome recipe.

I think the solution is to precook the apples partially in some butter. Remove them, make the caramel sauce, and toss the apples back in and continue.

I made this cake a couple of days ago. I think I burnt the carmel a little (definately that distinctive taste), but it still tastes all right. I did not use a cake pan, I did the entire thing in a cast iron skillet. The cake flipped out just fine (my skillets are really well seasoned too). I think a little cinnamon and nutmeg would make this recipie "pop" for me.

Oops: I forgot one more question. If I make this a day ahead would you recommend that I refrigerate it or can it be left covered on a cake stand?

I made this cake tonight and it is delicious and nice and light, not to mention yummy with ice-cream! I may have added a little extra butter than specified, to the caramel sauce and it melted down and browned just fine. I thought it would be too runny after I added the apples ( Ambrosias),but the sauce thickened up after 10 minutes or so of being on low heat. I then added a splash of Appleton Spiced rum and a sprinkle of cinnamon... Yum Yum! I was skeptical because the batter looked fairly runny. ( I used soy milk if that made any difference) In the end ,it cooked perfectly in 35 minutes in my convection oven. I used parchment paper in a 10 " springform pan,and it all popped out beautifully. Thank-you for the perfect recipe!

I just tried this recipe. The flavors are just right (not too sweet). However, I had trouble melting the sugar in the butter. After about 4-5 minutes it became hard candy! So I started again and melted the butter, sauteed the apples in it, then added the sugar at the end. This worked fine.

I have been an ardent fan of your website. I have been baking now for 2 years and any recipe from your website has been a sure hit. I had heaps of apples which had to be used, begging the family to eat it before they all went rotten is tiresome. I was sure I would find something here and I did. I began keenly putting the recipe together- and then ran into trouble when I wasn't sure if cornmeal was called corn flour in our part of the world. Did plenty of googling and used cornflour.Then when you said use boiling water to the cornmeal , I did and this got all lumpy, so then I dissolved it in less than 1/4 the quantity of water and then added the rest as boiling water. Then to make sure the whole thing was the right consistency heated the bowl for a few minutes, sounds very complicating doesn't it,but it seemed alright .The consistency was so unlike a cake or a muffin, hesitantly I poured it into the cake tin and popped it in to bake- I just had to see for myself what I might have done wrong, so I let it bake. When done I cut the cake and Voila I had this lovely cake- my 2 and half year piped 'Cake mama' - gave him. The fussy eater enjoyed this . THANKYOU Elise, from the bottom of my heart for this website . I can see you have put in lots of love in creating this website. If there is any way i can help you diversify I would be more than happy to give you some recipes of mine. Thankyou once again.

The picture convinced me to try the recipe and it came out perfect. I used 2% milk and added about a tsp more butter to the batter to compensate. Some of the caramel hardened up into a big lump when I put the apples in but it dissolved again shortly afterward (for people having trouble raise the heat and try using a stainless steel pan with an aluminum base). Thanks for the recipe.

I have been trying to make apple upside cake for a couple of years, only to have the results be overcooked on the outside, raw and gooey in the inside (because of the raw apples giving juices during the baking process) that I had almost given up on this type of cake completely. However, after trying this recipe and seeing the amazing results: light, crisp and buttery cake, caramelized apple topping, and most importantly of all, no half-baked batter, I am over the moon. Thank you for providing this WONDERFUL recipe.

The cake looks wonderful and I'm sure it is... but I know if I make it I will eat it and I am trying to drop some weight. I just wanted to pass along a tip I learned along the way that 'cured' the problem of my having gooey cake beneath the apples in my apple coffee cake, etc. I often throw together an upside down apple coffee cake using Hodson Mill's whole wheat baking mix called "InstaBake". I use whatever type apples I have, but I always had the problem with the cake being 'gooey' or 'raw' in the center area beneath the apples, no matter what type I used. One day in frustration-- after I sliced into one and it was still raw, I just stuck the coffee cake into the microwave (on its serving plate) and microwaved it--uncovered-- on high for 1 minute. I let it cool, and was delighted to see that it was now perfectly 'cooked'. From that time on, as soon as I invert my apple coffee cakes onto their serving plate, I immediately microwave the freshly baked cake for one minute on high. I've never had it to fail--so perhaps it will work for yours, too, on those occasions you want to throw out the cake!

Use 1/3 cup clarified butter, & 1 cup of brown sugar. Once it starts coming together either add your apples, or if desired to keep a little saucier, add a bit of 35% cream. I've been using this for upside down cakes & caramel sauce for a year with 100% sucess.

For granny smiths, i've sauteed them in a pan with some clarified butter until they get a bit of color on both sides, add brown sugar until it's a caramel consistancy, a little cream at the end to sauce it up, & use that for a base for the upside down cake. A sour cream coffee cake recipe works best.

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