Oct 22, 2020

Apple Upside Down Cake

This recipe is a favourite of mine. The vanilla cake is so light and moist, and is incredible pale on the inside, which I appreciate in a vanilla cake. The pièce de résistance, however, are the sugar and cinnamon crusted apples you get on top when removing the cake from the pan. Such a perfect recipe for autumn.

The vanilla cake is adapted from a Buddy Valastro recipe, although this one is much much lighter. It is still quite sweet, however. Technically, the amount of sugar can be adapted (I've already reduced a bit from the original, in fact), but sugar is considered a wet ingredient, so adding less means it will be less moist.

This recipe works best if you've got an electric whisk or stand mixer, as you really need to incorporate as much air as possible into the batter. An 8 inch cake tin was used for this recipe.

Ingredients

4 eggs

450gr white sugar

400gr flour

1 cup milk

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 1/4 tspn baking powder

1 tbsp vanilla essence

2 apples

1 tbsp white sugar

1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius.

2. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks, and weigh out the sugar to have on hand.

3. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the sugar a few tablespoons at a time, whisking between each addition, until a thick mixture forms.

4. Add the egg yolks to the white sugar and egg white mixture, and whisk.

5. In a separate bowl, add the vegetable oil, milk, and vanilla essence. In a third bowl, weigh out the flour and baking powder.

6. Alternate between adding the wet ingredients and dry ingredients into the egg and sugar mixture, whisking well between each addition. Set the batter aside.

7. Core the apples and cut into thin rings. Oil a cake tin and line the bottom with parchment paper. Do not skip the lining.

8. In a small bowl, mix the white sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Oil the parchment paper and sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon mixture into the pan, shifting the tin around until the bottom of the pan is covered.