Apple Upside Down Cake

Last year my father got it in his head to make an apple upside down cake.

Every fall our trees are loaded with apples and dad is always looking for excuses to bake with them.

Well, he tried three different recipes, and each one turned out with the same problem—they appeared to be cooked, had cooked the proper amount of time as called for by the recipe, the tester came out clean, but when he went to cut into the cake, the inside was gooey.

The last time this happened, dad swore like a sailor, threw the whole cake in the sink, and vowed to never attempt an apple upside down cake again. (Ever have days like that?)

I don’t know what possessed him to try his hand at it again.

Perhaps the intervening year softened the pain of the memory of three failed cakes?

Or perhaps he is just easily seduced by cake recipes, and the combination of this recipe he found in an old issue of Bon Appetit and apples on sale at Whole Foods for 99 cents a pound was just too tempting to ignore.

Or perhaps it had finally dawned on him (us) that the Granny Smiths we had been using to attempt similar cakes gave off too much liquid to work properly in the recipes.

In any case, his perseverance has paid off with this cake. It’s terrific! We can’t wait to make it again.

Apple Upside Down Cake Recipe

Ingredients

• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups white, granulate sugar divided (1/2 cup and 3/4 cup)
• 1 1/2 pounds Braeburn, Jonagold, or Golden Delicious apples (about 4 medium), peeled, quartered, cored, each quarter cut into 2 wedges
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup whole milk

Special equipment needed:

• 1-9-inch cake pan with 1 1/2-inch high sides

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