We have a lot of apples right now, so I decided that the Kidlet and I should try making an apple upside-down cake. It came out decently well. It probably would've been better with tarter, firmer apples, but we went with what we had on hand. The recipe calls for cutting half the apples quite thick and the other half much thinner. The thicker slices are supposed to give it more "apple impact". I really think it would've been fine with just the thin slices though. Maybe next time I'll try it that way and see how it turns out.

While this cake is nice enough, I was a bit disappointed that it didn't use any cinnamon. While there's something to be said for just letting the apples shine, I think a good hit of cinnamon in the topping would've been nice.

Actually, now that I think about it... this cake was alright, but if I'm gonna do an apple cake, I'd much rather make Deb's "German" apple cake. It's not an upside down cake (although I've kind of made it that way before), but it is a really delicious cake full of apples and cinnamon and everything good. Still... I'm glad I tried this one. It certainly wasn't bad, I'm just spoiled and know that I can do better.

Apple Upside-Down Cake

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

Topping

• 900g apples (pref. Granny Smith or Golden Delicious)
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 2/3 c. brown sugar
• 2 tsp. lemon juice¹

Cake

• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. cornmeal (optional)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Topping

1. Grease a 23cm (9") round pan and set aside.
2. Peel and core apples and cut into 5-6mm thick slices.
3. Toss apple slices with lemon juice.
4. Melt butter over medium-high heat and stir in sugar.
5. Once butter and sugar have formed a homogeneous mixture, add the apple slices and any residual juice and cook for 1 minute.
6. Transfer the apple mixture to the prepared tin and gently press into an even layer.

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Whisk eggs with sugars until thick and homogeneous.
3. Gradually whisk in melted butter.
4. Add sour cream and vanilla and beat until combined.
5. Sift in flour and baking soda. Add cornmeal at this point as well, if using. (Although you won't be able to sift it, just sprinkle it on top of the flour.)
6. Sprinkle salt over flour.
7. Mix with whisk until just combined.
8. Pour batter over apples.
9. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30-40 minutes.
10. Let cool in tin for 20 minutes.
11. Invert onto wire rack set over a baking sheet. Wait a minute or two if necessary for the cake to release.
12. Remove tin and allow cake to finish cooling on wire rack.
13. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

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¹ Whoops! Just realized that I misread the recipe and put 2 Tbsp. of lemon juice in. ^Back