Apple Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake

Hannah said that people might a little bit be having the tiniest trouble figuring out who is writing what. We maybe think alike and talk alike and such. Sorry I didn’t realize sooner! Sooo, hey! This is Kate speaking!

Tonight I went grocery shopping. And then I made a cake. I’ve been really productive. Pay no mind to the disastrous morning that was this morning. Avert your eyes and focus on this pretty cake I made for you.

I made this cake for several reasons:

1) It’s been a little while since I’ve baked a cake. This is problematic. See my first post.

2) It’s fall and apples are bananas right now. And by that I mean crazy. Not that they’re actually bananas instead of apples. That would also be bananas.

2.5) After I picked out my granny smiths and was picking out some bananas, a little girl in the cart next to me was singing “I like to oat oat oat eepples and baneenees!” over and over and over. Her vowel sounds may not have matched, but it was the best. And a sign of how good my produce choices were.

3) Other than the smell of rising sweet yeasted bread dough, the smell of caramelizing apples is probs the most heavenly smell in the world. Ever.

4) It has cornmeal in it. We’re really into cornmeal here on Fleur-De-Licious.

5) I would much rather eat cake batter and then baked cake for dinner than ramen. Which is what would have happened in all likelihood. It’s four weeks til finals (ohmygoshwhendidthathappen?!?!?!) and ramen is just easy enough that I will still feed myself despite this fact.

6) Have I mentioned how AWESOME it smells in my house right now?!

7) It’s freaking delicious. There are probably lotsa other reasons. I got a little tired of listing them. I also kinda can’t think of any more right now. Finals eat my brain. I’ll let you know if I think of anything else soon.

Makes 6-8 servings 

Ingredients 

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup plus 2/3 cup sugar

3 7- to 8-oz Granny Smith apples, peeled, sliced, cored

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-in diameter cake pan.
2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the 1/2 cup sugar and stir until the sugar is melted and golden brown. This might take about 3 minutes. Also, the sugar won’t melt into the butter immediately. It will happen gradually as it heats.
3. Add the apples and saute over medium heat until the apples are tender and covered in caramel. For me, this took about 10 minutes. It will depend on how thickly you slice your apples. Just keep an eye on them. Once they are tender and awesome, pour them into the greased pan and move them around so the entire bottom of the pan is covered in caramelized apple goodness.
4. Whisk cornmeal, flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium size bowl.
5. Cream together remaining butter and sugar in a large bowl. Beat in the egg. Alternate adding the flour and buttermilk: 1/2 the dry ingredients, all the buttermilk, the other 1/2 of the dry ingredients. Mix well.
6. Drop the batter by spoonfuls into the pan over the apples. Even the top out so you’ll have a flat bottom of your cake.
7. Bake the cake until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean from the center. This took 40 minutes for me. Cool the cake for 5 minutes on a wire rack. It’s important you pay attention to the time here. If you flip the pan too soon, your cake probably won’t have set together. If you flip the pan too late, the caramelized apples will have cooled enough to stick the bottom of the pan. Translation: flip it at just 5 minutes so that you don’t have a mess of an upside-down cake. Run a knife around the sides of the pan, place platter on top, and flip it! Be gentle as you lift the pan away from the platter.
8. Serve warm. I think this would be kinda delicious with some pumpkin ice cream. Or vanilla too, of course.

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit Desserts

Eat this cake and you’re basically eating fall. You’ll have a season in your mouth. Seriously.  If you wanna make it more fall-y, I might add a little cinnamon/nutmeg to the batter. Yumz. The cake itself is super moist (the only situation in which I will utter that word). I’m DEF having this for breakfast in the morning.

You should join me!! Like we can eat it at the same time in our kitchens. Like we’re eating it together. Not like “Hey come over for breakfast.” I’m not that forward (though, you’re welcome anytime…). Bake with love!