There are so many varieties of fall apples available that sometimes I have a hard time keeping them all straight. And that is the only excuse I have for deciding to make King Arthur Flour's Apple Upside-Down Cake with McIntosh apples.
Because the photo accompanying the recipe is so alluring, I've had this cake on my to-bake list for some time. It's an easy recipe. First, you peel and slice apples and arrange them in the bottom of a parchment-lined pan (if you look at the King Arthur Flourish blog entry about this recipe, it includes photos of all of the steps). Because my apples were on the small side, I placed the apple top in the center of the pan and surrounded it with two concentric rings of apple slices. You cover the apples with a caramel syrup made from butter, brown sugar, boiled cider, cinnamon, and corn syrup.
To make the cake batter, you beat oil with brown sugar, boiled cider, eggs, cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, and salt; add in flour and baking soda; and stir in diced apple and nuts (I used walnuts). You carefully spread the batter over the apples and caramel topping, and bake.
After the cake came out of the oven I let it cool for five minutes and then inverted it onto a wire rack. Many of the apple slices came off of the cake because they were stuck to the parchment paper. I peeled off the apples and tried to rearrange them on top of the cake, but they were pretty floppy (why did I use McIntosh apples, and why didn't I slice them thicker?!) so the top of the cake looked pretty messy. I poured over the reserved caramel topping and let the cake cool completely; much of the topping got absorbed into the cake. I was disappointed that my cake looked absolutely nothing like the photo accompanying the recipe, but the cake on the King Arthur blog didn't look anything like it either, so that provided some measure of comfort.
This cake tasted better than it looked. The texture was dense and moist, and I think that the nuts are a critical part of this recipe because they provide needed crunch and textural contrast in what is a fairly heavy cake. The cake had a lovely apple-spice flavor and I really liked the apple slices on top. The diced apple in the cake itself might have contributed flavor, but the texture of the soft apple bits was indistinguishable from the surrounding cake. Even though the cake didn't look great, it tasted good and was a homey and comforting treat for a crisp fall day. If I ever make this cake again, I'm definitely using some different apples that will do a better job retaining their shape and texture!
Recipe: "Apple Upside-Down Cake" from King Arthur Flour.
Because the photo accompanying the recipe is so alluring, I've had this cake on my to-bake list for some time. It's an easy recipe. First, you peel and slice apples and arrange them in the bottom of a parchment-lined pan (if you look at the King Arthur Flourish blog entry about this recipe, it includes photos of all of the steps). Because my apples were on the small side, I placed the apple top in the center of the pan and surrounded it with two concentric rings of apple slices. You cover the apples with a caramel syrup made from butter, brown sugar, boiled cider, cinnamon, and corn syrup.
To make the cake batter, you beat oil with brown sugar, boiled cider, eggs, cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, and salt; add in flour and baking soda; and stir in diced apple and nuts (I used walnuts). You carefully spread the batter over the apples and caramel topping, and bake.
Recipe: "Apple Upside-Down Cake" from King Arthur Flour.
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