Old Fashioned Apple Upside Down Cake. A decades old family recipe that uses very simple ingredients to create a comfort food dessert that everyone will love; a classic Autumn dessert that’s only improved by a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Old Fashioned Apple Upside Down Cake
When I say old fashioned, that’s exactly what I mean. Made from scratch using simple ingredients just like your grandmother would have made. I’ve been making this one for decades.
Especially at this time of year, this apple upside down cake is one of those recipes that you make when “there’s nothing in the house”. You likely have all the ingredients on hand to whip this one up at any time.
Old Fashioned Apple Upside Down Cake
I like to serve this one warm from the oven with a scoop of vanilla bean or even caramel swirl ice cream or a dollop of fresh whipped cream. Delicious for a fall Sunday dinner dessert.
Apple Upside Down Cake Preparation
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Old Fashioned Apple Upside Down Cake
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Originally published Jan 30, 2008.
If you liked this recipe you’ll want to try this Peach Cake with Vanilla Glaze recipe too:
Peach cake with vanilla glaze
- 6 apples peeled cored and cut into thick wedges
- 1/3 cup butter
- 2/3 cup white sugar you can use light brown sugar if you prefer
- 3 tbsp water
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ cup butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup milk
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Melt the 1/3 cup butter in a large non-stick sauté pan.
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Add the sugar, water and cinnamon. Cook over medium heat until the mixture gets foamy, then add the apples.
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Cook the apples in the cinnamon and sugar syrup just until they begin to soften.
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Transfer the apple slices to the prepared pan and pour the syrup from the pan over them.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x9 inch baking pan or a 10 inch round cake pan well.
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Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
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Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
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Beat in the vanilla extract.
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Sift together the flour and baking powder.
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Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. In general, I add the dry ingredients in 3 portions and the milk in 2 additions.
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Dollop the batter by heaping tablespoonfuls all over the surface of the apple layer and then spread out evenly to the edges of the pan.
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Bake at 350 degrees F for about 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
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The toothpick test is the best way to ensure that this cake is fully baked.
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Christine Westerlund
September 28, 2016 at 11:35 amThank you for this way of preparing this Tarte Tatin by caramelizing the apples on the stove fisrt. I saw this done on Masterchef Australia, and I had forgotten until you came with this recipe. Now I have it “on paper” and will not forget it again. Thanks so much, Barry ! Happy cooking !
Barry C. Parsons
October 1, 2016 at 2:31 pmTarte Tatin would use pastry but maybe we could coin a new name “Gateau Tatin.” 😀
Elsie
September 28, 2016 at 12:10 pmThis looks terrific. I’m going to try halving the recipe as I have smaller (6″) cake pans and there are only the two of us.
Barry C. Parsons
September 30, 2016 at 12:48 pmI’d suggest an 8 inch round pan. 6 is likely too small for half this recipe.
Elsie
September 30, 2016 at 11:34 amSo I have my butter softening and my egg is on the counter. Then I read the recipe again and it says “prepared pan”. How is this pan to be prepared?
Barry C. Parsons
September 30, 2016 at 11:37 amIt’s in the first instruction for the cake batter.
Elsie
October 4, 2016 at 10:13 amThank you. I looked at the recipe a few times but kept on not seeing the pan preparation part. I had gone ahead and made it, and used baking spray on the pan so all was well. It baked up fine in the 6″ pan but a 7″ one would have been better. Thanks for posting this recipe. We enjoyed it.
Imla
October 10, 2016 at 6:20 pmHi, thanks for this gorgeous recipe 🙂
I (and my entire family) was a HUGE fan of the apple upside down cake recipe you had uploaded before this one as well, and silly me I hadn’t saved it anywhere else. Could you please tell me where I can find it? Or if you could pls re-upload it? 🙂
Thanks so much!
Barry C. Parsons
October 13, 2016 at 1:13 pmThis is really just an updated and slightly simplified version of an older recipe.
Connie
August 10, 2017 at 1:57 amCan this be done in a spring form pan or will the syrup leak?
Barry C. Parsons
August 29, 2017 at 11:20 amNot a good idea. Definite leakage issue.
Sally Ellis
August 19, 2017 at 6:11 pmThis looks delicious, just going to have to get a tin without removable bottom and convert all the measurements to British ones first! Shamefully unprepared. Quick question – I always use Bramley apples, i.e. Sharp ones usually used in crumbles, pies etc. Will they be ok here? (Guessing so as the syrup will counteract the sharpness). Thanks!
Barry C. Parsons
August 29, 2017 at 12:53 pmYes, they will be fine. We do have new recipe structure software that allows me to convert to metric. I’ll do that for this recipe now. New recipes will have the measurements automatically but I have to manually do older recipes which will likely take a year or so to convert about 1600 recipes!!
H.E. Smith
October 17, 2017 at 4:54 pmI made this cake recently in a well-oiled bundt pan, with King of Tompkins County apples from our own trees. It looked and tasted splendid! Because I was using a bundt pan, I cut down on the amount of apples in the recipe but not by much.
Jyoti
November 2, 2017 at 5:03 pmThis looks delicious can this be made in. A 9*3 inch round pan.?
Barry C. Parsons
November 2, 2017 at 5:54 pmShould be okay. Watch the timing. Trust the toothpick test for doneness.
A.Ayyar
November 19, 2017 at 12:13 pmMade this cake for afternoon tea over the weekend and it turned out fabulous! Absolutely loved it. I have a smaller 6” pan so ended up using cutting the cake recipe into half.
Wardah
February 3, 2018 at 6:50 pmI had a question…can I use a gluten free flour in place of regular all purpose flour for this cake recipe?
Barry C. Parsons
February 4, 2018 at 9:49 amI do very little gluten free baking and have never tired this recipe as a gluten free version. If you do, please let us know your results.
Patricia Foster
May 5, 2018 at 5:28 pmI found the amount of apples called for in this recipe to be far too many -maybe my apples were too larger? Next time, I would piece the apples into the pan as I go along. As it was, this was divided among two 8-inch pans and the batter was divided among those two pans. They are in the oven now and smelling great. (By the way, the batter tastes GREAT! (I know, we’re not supposed to lick the bowl – but I grew up licking the bowl – so. . . . Thank you for a great recipe.
Erica
May 7, 2019 at 3:48 pmBarry which apples work best for this? I think McIntosh might be too soft?
Barry C. Parsons
May 9, 2019 at 3:16 pmYes any applesauce apples would be too soft. Go for firmer like yellow or red delicious apples.