Cooking Light Apple Upside Down Cake

The day I made all my banana bread, I was at my brother and Sister in laws house. We, Ashley and I that is, were kind of baking together.  Towards the end my brother had everyone come over for dinner and begins flipping through my Cooking Light 2010 issue and comes across this Upside Down Apple Cake recipe. He chirps up that oh we should make this for dessert.  I couldn’t believe it; He hates sweets and is asking for a cake??? Apparently he likes apple stuff! So he went to buy apples and I set out to prep the rest of the ingredients.  I of course added an extra apple but that was the only thing I did differently.  The cake was wonderfully light and oh so tasty. We did all feel it needed a little something.  Some cinnamon would have been an ideal addition. I wanted maybe some cranberries with the apples for color. 

I think a swirl of cinnamon crumb something through the cake would be wonderful in the cake and simply enhance the entire cake. It was quite tasty!

Apple Upside Down Cake:

Topping:

Cooking Spray

¾ c sugar

¼ c water

3 c (1/4 inch thick) sliced peeled Rome apples (about 2 large)

¼ c chopped walnuts

Cake:

5.3 oz cake flour (about 1 1/3 c)

1 ½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

2/3 c sugar

3 tbsp butter, softened

2 large egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ c 1% low-fat milk

3 large egg whites

1.       Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray. 

2.       To prepare topping, combine ¾ sugar and ¼ c water in a small heavy saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until sugar dissolves, stirring gently as needed to dissolve sugar evenly (about 3 minutes).  Continue cooking for 4 minutes or until golden (do not stir).  Immediately pour into prepared cake pan, tipping quickly to coat bottom of pan.  Arrange apple slices in concentric circles in pan over the warm caramel. Sprinkle with nuts, set aside.

3.       To prepare cake, weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups. Level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt, stir with a whisk.

4.       Combine 2/3 c sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add egg yolks and vanilla to sugar mixture; beat until combined.  Add flour mixture and milk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture, mix after each addition.

5.       Place egg whites in a large, clean bowl. Beat egg whites with mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form using clean, dry beaters.  Gently fold egg whites into batter. Spread batter over apples. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack in pan for 5 minutes. Loosen edges of cake with a knife; invert cake onto a serving plate. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

It was a fun day of baking with Ash.. and she took all the pictures so at least for these posts my pictures had some creativity to them!! It was a great day and 5 posts out of it!