Caramel and Apple upside-down Cake

It's winter time! We all need comfort food during this season.. I know I do! I have some admiration with upside down cake, they just look impressive and it's actually quite easy to make until at last minute, I realised that I wasn't suppose to use the spring form pan to bake the upside down cake as the caramel syrup may leak out from the base during cooking. So I changed immediately to the available pan I have that was not spring form  (I guess this was the sign that I need to update my kitchen equipment). The square pan happened to be my lucky charm, even though the size is quite small but still works for the cake. Just as I thought this was supposed to be an easy simple baking on one Sunday afternoon.

After all the hustle, I love the result of Caramel and Apple upside- down cake. I know my husband loves it, he already requested for me to bake this again next weekend.

Caramel and Apple upside-down Cake

Ingredients

5 Royal Gala Apples, cored and cut into wedges

495g Caster Sugar

300 Unsalted Butter, softened

1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

300g Plain Flour

1 tablespoon Baking Powder

75g Almond Meal

1 teaspoon ground cardamon

7 eggs, at room temperature

80ml Milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°. Grease and line the base of a cake pan. Starting from the edge of the pan, tigthly pack apple skin side down in a pan, then pack remaining wedges into the centre.

2. Place 220g Sugar and 180 ml water in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil then simmer to a dark caramel. Pour into the pan, pouring around the edge first, then the centre. Working quickly, arrange apple over caramel.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, vanilla and remaining 275g sugar until pale and fluffy. Add flour, baking powder, almond meal, cardamon into butter mixture. Add eggs and milk and beat on low speed until smooth.

4. Spoon batter over apple and level the back of the spoon. Bake on the bottom shelf of the oven for 30 minutes, then cover with baking paper to prevent over browning and bake for a further 45 minutes or until cake comes away from the sides of the pan or a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool into the pan for further 15 minutes, then run a knife around the cake and turn out onto a plate.

5. Serve the cake warm at a room temperature.