Yesterday, like most Sundays, I got up early with the intent to bake. We normally go to my mom’s house for dinner every Sunday evening, and since she’s in charge of cooking the meal I usually take care of dessert. Last week I found a recipe online and pinned it over on my Pinterest account so I wouldn’t forget it and it’s been burning a hole in my brain ever since. Obviously it had to be made, and soon.

Without any further adieu, the recipe:

Apple Upside-Down Cake
From King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

4 medium apples, suitable for baking (I used Granny Smith)
4 tbsp. butter
1 3/4 c. light brown sugar, firmly packed
4 tbsp. thawed apple juice concentrate
1 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 c. light corn syrup
3/4 c. vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9-inch, 1 1/2 – 2″ cake pan with butter (make sure to grease it very well, and don’t forget the sides of the pan!). Place a circular cut out of parchment paper down in the pan and spray it with cooking spray. Set aside.

Next, core and peel two apples. I used my apple coring tool and then sliced the slices it made in half to make them thinner. Then peel the skin off each slice – they’re much easier to peel this way. Arrange the slices in a pinwheel shape in your cake pan. Then, slice the top off a third apple and place it down in the centre of the pan.

Now it’s time to start on your caramel sauce. Combine your butter, 3/4 c. brown sugar, 2 tbsp. of apple concentrate, 1/4 tsp. of cinnamon, and 1/4 c. corn syrup in a saucepan. Heat over low-to-medium heat (I set my burner to “4″) until sugar is dissolved. Once finished, pour 1/2 c. caramel sauce over the apples arranged in the pan.

Now for the cake batter itself! In a large bowl, combine 3/4 c. vegetable oil, 1 c. tightly packed brown sugar, the final 2 tbsp. of apple concentrate, 2 large eggs, 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ginger, 1/8 tsp. cloves, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Stir until ingredients are combined and smooth.

If you have a dog, he might want to help. Just sayin’.

Next comes your flour. Add 1 tsp. baking soda and 1 1/2 c. flour. I used my hand blender to mix it all together. At this point I then grated the remaining two apples, including the one with the top I’d already cut off. The original recipe says to finely chop the apples, but I’m not the best at dicing so I decided to go easy on myself and use my grater. Add the grated apples to the cake batter and mix thoroughly.

Now you’re ready to pour the batter on top of the apple pinwheel. Make sure to take your time doing this so the apples don’t get pushed around too much – you want it to look presentable, right? Once the cake batter is poured on, allow it to settle and level itself out a bit. Then place your pan into the oven and bake for 50 minutes. It will be finished when a toothpick (or a knife, in my case) inserted into the middle comes out clean.

My kitchen exploded during the making of this recipe.

As the original recipe states, I ran a butter knife around the edges of the cake to loosen it a little as soon as it came out of the oven, then waited five minutes and flipped it out onto a cake plate. A teeny piece of one of the edges of mine fell off, but it’s not a bit deal. Now, reheat your remaining caramel sauce and drizzle it onto the cake. If you need to, use a spatula to spread it around a little bit and allow it to creep down onto the plate – trust me, it will look awesome.

This recipe was a huge success. My mom had some friends over for dinner as well (who I affectionately refer to as my “auntie & uncle” even though we’re not related), and all of us loved it. It was hard to have just one piece in keeping with my diet, believe me! I made sure I earned a slice by running 8K before dinner. Everything in moderation, right?

Until next time!

Love,
Cyn (& Dave)