This wholemeal upside-down apple cake is super easy to make and and the results are better than satisfactory – a lot better. It’s quick to prepare and tastes delicious. The slightly caramelised apple pairs well with the subtle tones of cardamom and cider.
Earlier this month, I posted 80 seasonal and delicious apple recipes. I’ve already made apple cider scones this autumn, but with apples galore at the moment, I just couldn’t resist using them in another recipe. Actually, I’ve been using our windfalls in all sorts of ways. They go very nicely with cabbage and make a great addition to mashed potato too. I’ve also been enjoying homemade apple sauce on my porridge in the mornings – one of the best uses for seasonal cooking apples or windfalls in my opinion.
Upside-Down Apple Cake
Having said that, this upside-down apple cake is exceedingly good too. It has a lovely flavour with the slightly caramelised apple on top and notes of cardamom and cider throughout. The texture is also very good. It’s one of the easiest apple cakes to make and there’s no need to peel the apples – bonus!
The cake can be made with just wholemeal flour, but I used some Free From Fairy gluten-free wholegrain flour as well. It’s a really nice mix and adding a little to my ordinary wholemeal flour or spelt flour seems to enhance the bake. If you ever need gluten-free flour, this is the one to go for. It comes in both plain and self-raising versions and both are a mix of wholegrain teff, sorghum and buckwheat with a little tapioca and potato starch thrown in for good measure. I love it.
Both the cider and kefir react with the bicarbonate of soda to help with the rise. Bakes with wholemeal flour don’t generally rise as well as those using plain flour, so a bit of extra help doesn’t go amiss. Don’t worry if you don’t have any kefir, you can use buttermilk, sour milk or watered down yoghurt instead. You can also omit the cider if you like and substitute it with more kefir / buttermilk / sour milk / watered down yoghurt.
Other Tin and Thyme Apple Cakes You Might Like
- Almond apple cider cake
- Apple crumble & custard mini cakes
- Blackberry & apple cupcakes
- Dorset apple cake with chocolate caramel
- Honey apple cardamom mini bundt cakes
- Irish honey cake
- Kale apple cake
- Spiced toffee apple bonfire cakes
- Toffee apple hazelnut cake
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Upside-Down Apple Cake. PIN IT.
Upside-Down Apple Cake – The Recipe
Upside-Down Apple Cake
Ingredients
- 125 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 125 g light muscovado sugar
- seeds from 8 cardamom pods - ground
- 3 large eggs
- 200 g wholemeal flour I used 180g wholemeal & 20g Free From Fairy gluten-free wholegrain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 3 tbsp cider
- 3 tbsp kefir can use buttermilk or watered down yoghurt
- 2 dessert apples - cored and sliced but not peeled.
- 1 tbsp (25g) demerara sugar
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180℃/350℉/Gas mark 4.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and muscovado sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in the cardamom pods and cream some more.
- Beat in the eggs, one by one, adding a little of the flour if the mixture looks like curdling.
- Sieve in the dry ingredients, including the Free From Fairy gluten-free wholegrain flour if using. Throw out any large pieces of bran remaining in the sieve. Gently stir until just incorporated.
- Gradually add the cider followed by the kefir, stirring as you go.
- Slice the apples and lay them on the bottom of a greased deep round 20cm (8") silicone mould or lined tin.
- Sprinkle the demerara sugar over the top.
- Scrape the batter from the bowl over the apples and level the top.
- Bake for about 40 minutes or until the cake is firm to the touch and an inserted skewer comes out mostly clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin, then turn out onto a serving plate so that the apple slices are on top.
Notes
Nutrition
Linkies
I’m sharing this easy recipe for upside-down apple cake with Curly’s Cooking for #CookBlogShare, with Only Crumbs Remain for #BakingCrumbs, with JibberJabberUK for #LoveCake and with Searching for Spice for #CookOnceEatTwice.
Oooh, I haven’t made an upside down cake for ages, yours looks delicious! Perfect for apple season.
Thanks Chris. I do love a good apple cake and upside down ones are some of the easiest to make.
I would love a slice of this with custard!
Thanks Kat. Warm from the oven, this would be excellent with custard.
Yay for upsidedown cakes – I love how easy they are the endless flavour combos you can achieve with them. i’d most definitely love to try a slice (or two) of your apple version Choclette, it looks absolutely scrummy 🙂 Thankyou for linking it up to #BakingCrumbs,
Angela xx
Thanks Angela. Yay for upside-down cakes indeed. I can feel a pear one coming on next.
Love cooked apples so this cake definitely has me salivating. Love that you’ve used wholewheat flour.
Thanks Mayuri. I pretty much always use wholemeal flour in my baking. It’s more nourishing and I actually find it tastier too.
It looks delicious. I love the addition of cider to give it extra apple goodness.
It’s hard to beat an apple cider cake at this time of year Ness 😀
I have some Bramleys to bake with, do you think these would work as well? I am just imagining the delicious spiced flavour and drooling already.
I reckon Bramleys would work fine, though I’d probably double the amount of demerara sprinkled on top.
I love the sound of cardamom and cider with apples, sounds perfect and a little variation on the usual cinnamon. And the upside down aspect is fab, not made up upside down cake for eons!
This was the first upside-down cake I’d made for eons too. It’s such a good thing to do with fruit especially ones that go well with caramel flavours. I often use cardamom with fruit as I think it pairs just as well as cinnamon – though I love that too.
I love both upside-down cakes and apple cakes/pies of any description really! This one sounds really delightful and the fact that it is made with wholemeal flour and kefir and apples makes it really healthy, almost medicinal 🙂 It sounds like easy to make and definitely easy to eat! Thank you for sharing with #BakingCrumbs 🙂
Thanks Jo. I’m not sure marketing this as a medicinal cake would make it seem particularly appealing, but yes, it’s definitely an uplifting one 😀
This looks so tasty. Apples are always delicious at this time of year and your cake looks like a fantastic way to use them. I love the flavours and also that you don’t need to peel the apples! Bonus! Thanks for sharing with #CookBlogShare.
Thanks Cat. I love apple season, but I do get bored of peeling apples quite quickly, so this cake is a particularly good one in that respect.
This is a great bake. It’s making me so hungry.
I need to make this at the weekend.
Thanks Sisley. It’s a nice easy one to make, but looks a bit more impressive for being served upside down.
I love any kind of apple cake and I especially love the caramelisation you get with an upside down cake. This is so lovely and seasonal and a great way to use up windfalls. Thanks for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice!
Thanks Corina. It was a lovely cake and because there were only two of us, it lasted us 4 whole days – though I don’t think it would have been good for much longer than that.
Up side down cake is our top favourite! Yours turned out so good and I love the use of kefir in baking so much!
Thanks Angie. We always have loads of kefir hanging around and it works brilliantly in baking.