Brandied Apple Upside Down Cake
This Brandied Apple Upside Down Cake recipe is from my book, “The Spirited Baker”. Apple Brandy is such an easy way to elevate any apple dessert!
Originally published November 3, 2010, Updated on 10/3/20
Cake is always welcome, but sometimes the effort of torting and frosting a cake seems a bit... much.
Enter: The Upside Down Cake!
Upside Down Cakes taste great, look classy... and take very little effort. You may be used to them in their traditional form - as a vanilla cake with pineapple slices and cherries on top.
While Pineapple Upside Down Cake is a classic, I like to veer off from tradition and have a bit more fun with it - flavouring the cake batter, varying the fruit used, even incorporating drizzles before serving.
You may have heard of my Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake - the cake that got me onto Wolfgang Puck’s Preferred Vendor List (Back when I had a cake business) AND Masterchef.
Then, there’s my French Martini Upside Down Cake - my only cake that has a talking pineapple and Jann Arden as part of its origin story.. Shockingly enough.
Another fun example is my Bananas Foster Upside Down Cake, which has a cinnamon rum cake base, Bananas Foster on top, and is just amazing.
Anyway, yes. Upside Down Cakes can be impressive, without a lot of effort!
This Brandied Apple Upside Down Cake is a perfect fall and winter cake. The aroma of the cake - even while still in the oven - evokes warm images of Thanksgiving, Christmas eve, seasonal get togethers, etc.
Yum!
I like to make these around apple harvest time, as a beautiful - and tasty - way to use up that bounty.
It’s also a great addition to Thanksgiving spreads, especially here in Canada. (Thanksgiving falls in early October here, which is *peak* apple season!)
Whether you make it as part of a holiday offering, as a way to end an afternoon of apple picking, or just for the hell of it, I hope you enjoy this Brandied Apple Upside Down Cake!
More Holiday Recipes
Looking for more inspiration for your holiday spread? Whether Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, or any of the other holidays, here's a few ideas for you!
Bacon Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Chicken Based Potato Sausage Recipe - Potatiskorv
Cranberry Wine
Egg Nog Sticky Buns
Gluten-Free Chicken Mushroom Tortiere
Maple Bourbon Glazed Carrots
Mushroom Brie Turnovers
Noelles
Orange Ginger Cranberry Sauce
Pumpkin Mead
Pumpkin Spice Nanaimo Bars
Savoury Mushroom Chestnut Stuffing
Southern Comfort Glazed Ham
This recipe comes from my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker. It’s FULL of fun, tasty recipes using spirits and liqueurs for flavour – you should check it out:
Combining liqueurs with more traditional baking ingredients can yield spectacular results.Try Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake, Candy Apple Flan, Jalapeno Beer Peanut Brittle, Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes, Pina Colada Rum Cake, Strawberry Daiquiri Chiffon Pie, and so much more.
To further add to your creative possibilities, the first chapter teaches how to infuse spirits to make both basic and cream liqueurs, as well as home made flavor extracts! This book contains over 160 easy to make recipes, with variation suggestions to help create hundreds more! Order your hard copy here on my website, through Amazon, or through any major bookseller.
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Before you chow down, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you Instagram it, be sure to tag me - @OverlordMarie - or post it to My Facebook Page - so I can cheer you on!
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Well, the published nonsense, anyway!
Now, on to that Brandied Apple Upside Down Cake recipe!
Brandied Apple Upside Down Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup Butter melted
- 1 ½ tsp All-Purpose Flour
- ½ cup Brown Sugar
- 3 Tbsp Apple Brandy
- ½ tsp Cinnamon
- 2-3 Large Apples peeled & sliced
- 2 cup Cake Flour
- 1 ½ cups Granulated Sugar
- 4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix 3 ½ oz
- 4 Large Eggs
- ½ cup Water
- ½ cup Apple Brandy
- ¾ cup Butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F (160°F). Liberally grease a 10″ round pan with vegetable shortening. Cut out a 10″ round of parchment paper, using bottom of pan as a template. Place inside pan, smoothing it out to cling securely to the shortening.
- Combine melted butter, flour, brown sugar, apple brandy, and cinnamon in a small saucepan. Heat on low, stirring until well combined. Pour into prepared cake pan, spreading evenly.
- Arrange fruit slices on top of caramel mixture, set aside.
- Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and pudding mix in a large mixing bowl.
- Add in eggs and water, beating until smooth. Carefully add apple brandy and melted butter to the mix, mixing on medium speed until smooth.
- Gently pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake until golden and knife inserted into center of batter comes out clean and cake springs back – about 50-60 minutes.
- With the hot cake still in the pan, carefully level the top by cutting off the “dome” over the edge of the pan
- Allow cake to cool for about 20 minutes before turning cake out directly onto serving plate.
Nutrition
Interested in making wickedly delicious cakes? You'll LOVE my second cookbook, Evil Cake Overlord!
We've long been known for our “ridiculously delicious” moist cakes and tasty, unique flavors. Now, you can have recipes for all of the amazing flavors on our former custom cake menu, and many more!
Bake your moist work of gastronomic art, then fill and frost your cake with any number of tasty possibilities. Milk chocolate cardamom pear, mango mojito.. even our famous Chai cake – the flavor that got us into “Every Day with Rachel Ray” magazine!
Feeling creative? Use our easy to follow recipe to make our yummy fondant. Forget everything you’ve heard about fondant – ours is made from marshmallows and powdered sugar, and is essentially candy – you can even flavor it!
Order your copy directly through my site, through Amazon, or through any major bookseller!
This sounds wonderful! I can't wait to try it. 🙂
Has anyone made this? I want to try and make an apple upside down cake for a friend of mine but i want to make the best one i can find. Feedback would be great from anyone! Thanks 🙂
I made this recipe for a silent auction at my work with proceeds going toward Combat Hunger (the cake sold for $25). I haven't been able to actually try the cake as a whole but there was a LOT of leftover batter. I got 12 cupcakes out of the remaining batter and cut them up for samples.
The batter was very runny and I was afraid that it wouldn't cook properly. I was also afraid of runoff in the oven. The cake came out looking fantastic and people actually thought the cake was professionally made. The cake tasted delicious and I can't WAIT to taste it as a whole. We bought enough apples for two cakes so tomorrow I will make it again - for us. I think I will tweak some things in the recipe so the batter isn't as runny. We did taste one of the apples (stuck to the pan after I flipped it out) and we dragged some bits of cake through the remaining topping left in the pan and it was VERY good, although I think there was a little too much of a brandy flavor in the cake itself.
The only apple brandy we were able to find was a bottle for $40 and another for $30. We ended up going with a peach brandy for $9.99.
I have made this twice. It is absolutely delicious. Making it again for a party this weekend...