Today was the annual Cider Day, the perfect way to finish off a beautiful Fall weekend. I love Maine in the Fall!
Everybody loves Maine in the Fall when it means that yummy apple treats abound! I brought this cake to 2 parties this week and it was mowed down both times. 'Tis the season.
Apple Upside-Down Cake (gluten free, and mostly dairy free)
Ingredients:
Topping:
3 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
Cake:
4 apples
1 lemon, (juice it and grate the peel)
3/4 c. olive oil (not extra virgin, please)
1/2 c. brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. potato starch
1/4 c. tapioca flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
Seeds of 2 large green cardamom pods, ground, or "a pinch" cardamom
Procedure:
Peel, core, and thinly slice apples. Mix with lemon juice. Set aside. (Use one of those apple peeler-corer-slicer things if you can, because it's soooooo fun).
Mix together oil, lemon peel, and sugar. Set aside.
In a large, ovenproof skillet (mine is a cast-iron pan that's about 8.5" at the bottom and fans out to 11.5" at the rim), melt butter and both sugars. Shake to coat bottom of pan evenly. Arrange apple slices to cover one layer deep. More than one layer of apples is hard to invert, so try at your own risk. I usually overlap mine a little, though.
While the pan is still warm, butter the sides of the pan.
Any apples that you didn't use should now be sliced into slivers.
Mix together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
Now that you're completely covered with flour, put on an apron.
Turn on the mixer and beat the oil and the sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
Beat in the dry ingredients, and then stir in the apples.
Pour batter into pan.
Bake at 350°F for 25-30 minutes.
Set pan on cooling rack for 10 minutes. Important: don't leave for more than 10 minutes in the pan, or the sugar will start to set and it will be hard to get the cake out of the pan without losing some of the topping.
"Flip" onto serving plate and let cool.