Salted Caramel Apple Upside-Down Cake Recipe

While pineapple may be the best-known of the upside-down cakes, there are numerous other recipes for flipped fruit toppings. Among our favorites are upside-down banana cake, plum upside-down cake, fig upside-down cake with bay leaf caramel, and summery strawberry-basil upside-down cake. But, we now have a new one to add to the list: developer Jessica Morone's salted caramel upside-down cake.

Morone is a fall flavors superfan. "Now that it's September, I feel like everything should be apple- or pumpkin-flavored," she says. "Apples and caramel are a perfect combination all year but are especially great during the fall." The secret ingredient in her cake topping is salted butter, since salt is a flavor enhancer that makes the caramel sweeter and the apple tarter, and it also ties everything together. While this cake contains no pumpkin, it would pair perfectly with a pumpkin spice latte for the ultimate autumnal indulgence. (That's not to say that we wouldn't say no to a slice or three at any other time of the year, though!)

The cake batter is made from vegetable oil, granulated sugar, milk, egg, vanilla extract, flour, baking powder, salt, and apple pie spice. The upside-down topping consists of brown sugar, salted butter, and sliced apples (Granny Smiths would be best).

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom of a 9-inch round cake pan and spray the pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Add the butter to a medium saucepan and melt over medium heat.

Add in the brown sugar and stir until it is combined with the butter.

Bring the mixture to a boil and boil for about 1 minute, until bubbly.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan and spread it out evenly.

Arrange the cut apple slices on top of the caramel sauce.

In a large bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil and granulated sugar until smooth.

Add the egg and vanilla extract and whisk until combined. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and apple pie spice.

Add about half of the flour mixture and half of the milk into the bowl with the wet ingredients and whisk until combined. Repeat with the rest of the flour and milk.

Pour the cake batter over the apple slices in the cake pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40–45 minutes, until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let the cake sit for 20 minutes in the pan to cool, then run a butter knife around the inner edge of the cake pan and invert the cake onto a serving plate.

Cool completely before serving.

Apple pie spice, while commercially available, doesn't seem to be quite as ubiquitous as pumpkin pie spice, but you could actually substitute one for the other, if need be. The two are pretty similar since both contain allspice, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. But, pumpkin pie spice also has cloves, while apple pie spice is made with cardamon. Instead of using a substitute spice blend, however, you can easily mix up a batch of your own apple pie spice.

For a DIY apple pie spice blend, combine ¼ cup ground cinnamon, 1 ½ teaspoons ground nutmeg, ½ teaspoon ground allspice, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, and 1 teaspoon ground cardamom. This recipe makes about 5 tablespoons of spice. You'll only need ½ teaspoon for the salted caramel upside-down cake, but there's plenty you can do with the leftovers. You could use it to flavor an apple pie — of course — apple sauce, baked apples, or anything else made with apples. It's not just for apples, though, and it can be used in just about anything that you'd make with pumpkin pie spice or even plain cinnamon. You can swap in apple pie seasoning for both seasonings on a 1:1 basis.

An upside-down cake's appeal lies in how pretty it looks, so you'll want to take every precaution to make sure that it doesn't stick to the pan. This starts with not only greasing the pan but lining it with paper and greasing that, too. (Because the pan liner is entirely covered with batter, it's okay to use wax paper instead of parchment, although this material can't be exposed to direct heat.) It's also important to flip it at just the right time — the pan needs to be cool enough to handle, but the cake must still be warm. When you flip, do so as quickly as possible, since this will help to keep the cake intact.

What can you do if the cake still gets stuck? If you've left it too long and the cake has cooled down, try applying a little warmth to the bottom of the pan by wrapping it in a towel soaked in hot water and leaving it there for 15 minutes. If that doesn't work, you can always go the opposite route and place a bowl of ice cubes atop the upside-down pan. Even if worst comes to worst and you wind up having to pry the cake out of the pan, there's one more way to save the day: whipped cream, and plenty of it. Whipped cream hides all flaws and tastes great, too.