Tonight we’re going to an Oscar viewing party and I realized on Thursday that I have not seen any of the movies nominated for Best Picture. So this weekend has been dedicated to both cooking and attempting to watch Academy Award nominated movies. So far we’ve seen Dallas Buyer’s Club and Gravity and we’re now about to go watch American Hustle, so at least we’ve seen three of them.
In between watching the movies I made this Caramel Apple Upside-down Cake. This recipe is actually a combination of two different recipes. I liked the apple topping of one recipe and the cake portion of another recipe. It’s simple to make and very yummy.
Total Time: 1 hr. 15 mins.
Makes: 1 9 inch cake (8 slices)
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Ingredients:
Apple Topping
- 3 cups of apples peeled and sliced
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 water
- Cooking spray
Cake
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 2 tsp grated lemon zest
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
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Directions:
Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 inch cake pan with cooking spray and set aside.
To prepare the caramel topping, combine 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until sugar dissolves, stirring gently if needed to dissolve sugar evenly (about 3 minutes). Continue cooking for 4 minutes or until golden without stirring. Keep an eye on the caramel, it can get over cooked quickly.
Pour the caramel into the cake pan, covering the bottom of the pan. Arrange the apples in two circles on the caramel with the apple slices slightly overlapping then sprinkle with the walnuts. Set the pan aside and prepare the cake portion.
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together with the grated lemon zest, egg and vanilla in a large mixing bowl until combined. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the sugar mixture alternately with the buttermilk until it’s all combined, scraping the edges of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
Pour the cake mixture onto the apples. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
*The original recipe for the cake portion called to bake it for 45 minutes. I think my oven runs a little hot, but mine was definitely done at 35 minutes so I would advise to reduce the baking time and check the cake after 30 minutes.
Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes, run a knife around the edge and invert the cake onto a plate.
Delicious warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
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Apple topping from Cooking Light and cake portion also from Cooking Light.