U is for upside down cake (spiced honey & apple)

August 03, 2015

U is for upside down cake (spiced honey & apple)

I've arrived at the tricky letters of the alphabet for my A-Z baking challenge blog, but thankfully upside down cake was an easy first choice for me to bake this week. I hadn't made one before & had always wondered how easy they were to do.

Well, thankfully I can report that this recipe is easy & most importantly, it's delicious. It also has lots of apple goodness inside & the sweetness from the honey & gentle spice flavours combine to make a delicious cake indeed. The recipe suggested to serve it with some natural yoghurt, which I decided to try & I'm glad I did. The yoghurt cuts through the sweetness quite nicely & adds a tartness to it, much like the flavour of a cream cheese icing. This is perfect for a desert or afternoon tea - just allow yourself a couple of hours to make & bake the cake.

As with any fresh baking, I would recommend serving the cake slightly warm from the oven & if it's an afternoon tea treat, a good strong pot of tea on the side wouldn't go amiss.

The recipe is from the Australian cooking website, www.taste.com.au, which is jam packed full of delicious recipes & inspiration.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

For the apple bottom (which ends up on top of course!)

2 tablespoons honey

*1 Pink Lady apple, thinly sliced crossways (I used a mandolin to get thin, consistent slices)

* Although the recipe lists 1 apple, I used the better part of 2 apples for the top. In total, buy 3 apples to be on the safe side, 2 for the top & you'll need one to go in the cake batter itself.

For the cake

125g butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar (remember to pack the brown sugar in & level the top)

1/4 cup honey

3 eggs

1/2 cup self-raising flour

1/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup almond meal

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/3 cup sour cream

1 pink lady apple, peeled, cored & finely chopped

Natural yoghurt to serve

What to do

You'll need a 20cm round springform cake pan. Spray it with some cooking oil spray & then line the base & sides with baking paper. *See my note below for instructions on how to do this.
Preheat oven to 160C static or 140C fan bake.
Measure out 2 tablespoons of honey & from that, drizzle 2 teaspoons over the base of the cake tin. Next, arrange the apple slices. I started by placing one slice in the middle & then placing slices around the outside, making sure to overlap them so it all looks like a flower with it's petals. You might need a third outer layer of 'apple petals' depending on how big the apple was that you sliced. Go out to the edge of the tin so that when your cake is turned upright, the top is covered with apple. Drizzle the remaining honey over the top of your pretty apple arrangement.
Grab your electric cake mixer or a hand held mixer & into the mixing bowl goes the softened butter & brown sugar. Beat on high speed until creamy.
Reduce speed & add the eggs, one at a time - beating well between each addition.
In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients, then add to the creamed mixture. Beat on a low speed until just combined. Switch off the mixer now, you'll mix in the remaining ingredients by hand.
Peel, core & finely chop the apple & add it to the cake mixture along with the sour cream. Stir to combine.
Spoon the mixture evenly into your cake tin & then level off the top with a spoon or palate knife.
Place in the oven for around 1 hour or until the centre of the cake springs back when you touch it. Check on the cake after 50 minutes & see how it's going - you may need to keep it in the oven for longer. My cake took 1 hour & 20 minutes to cook - I had it on 140C fan bake. It came away from the sides & sprung back in the middle.
Remove cake from the oven when cooked & leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes.
Grab your serving plate & carefully upturn the cake onto it. Remove the baking paper & ta-da! Your upside down cake is now the right way up!

Serve the cake slightly warm from the oven with the natural yoghurt on the side.

* To prepare your cake tin, start by spraying the bottom & sides of the tin with cooking spray. First, place one of your round pieces of paper at the bottom of the tin & smooth it out, ensuring that the edges fit snugly around the bottom. Grab one of your side pieces & with the frilled bit at the bottom of the tin, fit it around the inside of the tin ensuring that you smooth the paper up against the sides for a snug fit. Press the frills down flat onto the bottom of the tin as well. Spray some more cooking spray around the papered sides of the tin, then do the same thing again with the second rectangular side piece of baking paper. Finally, once the sides are lining the tin nicely, grab the second circle of paper & fit this snugly & smoothly into the bottom of the tin.

Make sure the baking paper is as high again as the height of the tin - you may need to trim it down a bit. These instructions & photos were from a Christmas cake I made so I kept the paper quiet high as the cake was in the oven for a much longer time. It doesn't need to be this high for the upside down cake. You can also safely use just use one layer of baking paper for the bottom & sides of the tin if you wish.