I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for apple desserts. The first one I’m offering is from King Arthur Flour, a riff on pineapple upside down cake. The recipe calls for making this in a cake pan, but I’m going to use my cast iron skillet. Boiled apple cider is apparently a product relatively easily found in New England, or from the King Arthur catalog. I’m going to use the apple juice concentrate instead. I love having those frozen concentrates on hand … orange juice, pineapple, apple …. they make it easy to add lots of fruit flavor without lots of liquid. Great for glazes for grilling as well. The idea about putting the apple top in the center of the cake makes for an interesting presentation. You could skip it and just use apple slices instead.
Ingredients:
3 apples, divided 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed, divided 4 tablespoons boiled cider or thawed apple juice concentrate, divided 1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided 1/2 cup light corn syrup 3/4 cup vegetable oil 2 eggs 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9″ round cake pan at least 2″ deep. Line the bottom with parchment, and grease the parchment.
Slice the top, including the stem, off one of the apples and set it aside before peeling and slicing the rest of that apple and one more into 1/4″ thick wedges. Place the apple top, stem side down, in the middle of the pan, and overlap the rest of the apple wedges in a ring around it.
Prepare the topping by heating the butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons boiled cider, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and corn syrup together over low heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Pour 1/2 cup of the syrup mixture into the prepared pan, and set the rest aside.
To make the cake: Beat the oil, 1 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons boiled cider, eggs, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt together for 2 minutes at medium speed. Mix the flour with the baking soda, and stir it into the batter. Peel and chop the remaining apple and add the chopped apple along with the nuts to the batter; mix until just blended.
Drop scoops of the batter atop the apples in the pan, gently spreading to cover. Bake the cake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven, and run a thin spatula around the edge to loosen. Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a serving plate, bottom side up. Scrape out any sauce that remains in the pan, and spread it over the cake.
Reheat the reserved topping. If butter starts to separate as you reheat, add water by the teaspoon and stir until the butter rejoins the rest of the sauce. Pour the sauce over the cake. Serve cake warm or at room temperature, with whipped cream if desired.