Apple Pumpkin Upside-Down Cake
APPLES and PUMPKINS and Me, Oh My!
OK, so as I said in the last post my friend Linda LaRue came by for a date in the kitchen after we were discussing (alright obsessing) on what would make a great addition to the holiday dessert table that wasn’t mind-numbingly sweet and where you could actually taste the ingredients that shout FALL IS HERE!
I have a great fondness for my spring form pan and knew I wanted to use it. I suppose you could use a regular 9″ round cake pan but I’m very klutzy when it comes to getting cakes out of pans and I like the way the lock pops open on the spring form.
I mentioned my love of Trader Joe’s Organic Pumpkin… so simple, so delicious.. in my last post on pumpkin muffins. I stand by it – absolute goodness in a can.
Have you heard of volcano cake? Delicious when it comes to chocolate, right? Well, when we were done and cut in, we found ourselves staring at a pumpkin volcano cake.
Hmm. Just then my Novio walked by and being very helpful and taking his chief taster position very seriously, immediately offered his services. He liked it and said it was like a pumpkin pudding cake. OK, but not sure how that would generally go over. I am taking this cake over to our new neighbors’ Pam & Ray for Thanksgiving and I’d like for us to be invited back. They’re lovely people.
So I re-thought the ingredients and halved the amount of pumpkin, changed the original cake flour idea to unbleached flour and added a bit of baking powder. Don’t limit yourself to Thanksgiving, serve this baby anytime during the apple/pumpkin season.
That's more like it
APPLE PUMPKIN UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE
Makes about 12 servings.
Ingredients:
1 ½ c. unbleached flour ½ c. whole wheat pastry flour 1 t. baking powder 1/2 t. baking soda ½ t. salt 1 ¼ t. cinnamon ½ t. ground nutmeg ½ t. ground ginger ¼ t. ground cloves ½ c. canola oil ¾ c. superfine or granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1/2 15-oz. canned pumpkin (preferably organic and not pumpkin pie mix) (= 1 cup pumpkin) 3 medium sized apples, such as Pink Lady or Fuji 2 t. pure vanilla 1 T. Turbinado raw sugar (or sub 1 T. packed light brown sugar)Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Make sure your rack is positioned in the center of oven (a little above is good too). Lightly spray 9-inch spring form pan with light vegetable oil spray. Cut and place parchment paper to fit bottom of pan. Lightly grease paper. Combine ¼ tsp. cinnamon and Turbinado raw sugar in small bowl and spread evenly over bottom of spring form pan.
- Sift together flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, remaining cinnamon and all other spices in bowl.
- In the bowl of a mixer or by hand, thoroughly beat canola oil and sugar, then add eggs one at a time. Beat for 3 minutes or until fluffy. Next, add the pumpkin.
- Fold in sifted dry ingredients.
- Coarsely grate one apple and then fold into mixture. Add vanilla.
- Peel and thinly slice remaining two apples length-wise. Layer slices beginning in center outward in slightly overlapping circular pattern. Pour batter over layered apples. Place spring form pan over square of aluminum foil to prevent dripping to bottom of your oven. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out dry. Remove aluminum foil.
- Allow cake to cool for 30 minutes on rack before unlocking pan and flipping. Easiest way is loosen all around perimeter with blunt knife, unlock spring form, place desired cake plate upside-down over pan, take a breath and flip. I always wanted to be a gymnast.
a public debut
cake 'n buddies
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