Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Apple Upside-Down Cake

Whenever given a choice I use apples. Such a light, delicate, sweet, sometimes tart flavor. Never have I ever not liked something made sweet or savory with apples. And then there are so many varieties to choose from! I have my favorites for pie, others for tarts, and still more for apple sauce and savory applications. This week the Heavenly Cake Bakers left the choosing to the bakers and of course it was Apple Upside-Down Cake for me. Since I am already late to post, without further delay lets dive into this gem.
The project breaks down into 2-3 components. The first being the bottom or shall I say the topping. Rose's recipe calls for brown sugar, lemon juice, butter, apples of course and walnuts (although I had to delete the nuts for "J"). All of the ingredients are mixed together save the butter and some of the brown sugar to mingle together and release some delicious juices. The butter and brown sugar are cooked together to make some caramel. The apples are arranged on the bottom of the cake pan with caramel and juices poured over the top. Simple as 1-2-3. As you can see however, I didn't quite get enough of the juices. I will have to change out the Cortland apples for a juicier variety next time. So make a note of this. I was not totally happy with using brown sugar in place of white sugar here either. I felt that the molasses over shadowed the apple a little. Next time I would use white sugar so that the apples shine through.
The next step is the cake batter. I can tell you straight out that with the inclusion of sour cream this batter was very smooth and that it was delicate, buttery, and had a small crumb.
The third component as you can see I omitted. It was a Bourbon flavored whipped cream garnish. Have to watch the waistline sometimes!
Overall all my tasters enjoyed this cake as did I. It was easy to like and went well with coffee and a glass of milk. I know I will do this cake again with the small changes I mentioned. Hope you give it a try too and let me know if you change the fruit.

3 comments:

Vicki said...

Your cake turned out lovely! This is the first cake I made with HCB.

Hanaâ said...

How funny that we both made the same cake :o) Yours looks great. I like the darker caramel color on your cake.

Btw, regarding the date cake/muffins. Did you mash the sweet potatoes and then measured 1 cup? Also, how did you measure the flour for that recipe? Did you weigh it by chance? Thanks much!

Mendy said...

ב''ה

Good to know that cortland does not work with this. Interesting idea to use white sugar to give it more shine.