The upside-down cake: four layers of rich, fluffy paradise.
Photo: Nina Lincoff
Cupcakes, with piled-up frosting so acridly sweet it makes tongues seize and jaws lock from pure saccharine overload, say goodbye. There’s a new kind of cake in the bake shoppe.
Or, rather, an old kind of cake that is currently enjoying a much-needed revival. Because that cupcake you’re eating? That slice of cake frosted with pillows of buttercream that have seen softer, and, let’s be honest, more flavorful days? Those are just pitiful imitations of the Caramelized Apple Upside-down Cake.
Horchata cupcakes, blue velvet cakes, and cakes filled with passion fruit, raspberry, and guava gunk have nothing on the Upside-down cake. The upside-down cake is a perfectly executed, home-baked good. It’s the right combination of butter, sugar, flour, and fruit, resulting in a spiced, moist cake with a perfectly caramelized, almost nutty fruit topping. There’s nothing complicated about an upside-down cake. It’s simply delicious.
Upside-down cakes are the best example of food geology. A piece of upside-down cake can be easily broken down into four layers. The top: A layer of perfectly caramelized fruit that’s married to decadent, simple caramel. The caramel, once combined with fruit juices, bleeds into the cake to create the sopping, moist second-layer. The cake itself is slightly tangy, springy, sweet, and buttery.
And then, there’s the crust.
Since the bottom of an upside-down cake is the top side in the actual baking process, the bottom of a slice of the upside-down cake has a perfectly thin, crusty, golden-brown layer with a little crunch. The crust composes the cake’s fourth layer, and, like the rest of the cake, it’s perfect.
Caramelized Apple Upside-down Cake
Adapted from Food Network
Apples
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
¾ cup dark brown sugar
3 large granny smith apples
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup white sugar
a pinch of salt
Cake
½ cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ¼ cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups white flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup sour cream
A pinch of salt
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Peel, core, and slice the apples into 12 sections each and toss with a ¼ cup of white sugar and a pinch of cinammon.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the ½ cup of butter and white sugar. Add the egg, salt, and cinnamon, and stir until combined. Add the flour and baking soda and mix until just combined. Add the sour cream and mix until just combined. Set aside.
3. In a large, oven-proof skillet, melt the butter and brown sugar together until bubbling. Remove from heat and arrange the apple slices in a circular pattern. Top with the cake batter and spread evenly. Bake the entire thing in the oven for about an hour, or until golden and the tester, inserted in the center of the cake, comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a plate.
