Welcome to the tastes of fall. How about you give this Browned Butter Apple Upside-down cake (with some salted caramel drizzle) the good college effort. I mean if this doesn’t scream “welcome to the first day of school,” I don’t know what does. Can you imagine coming home to this cake and feeling oh so fall? Bring on the crunchy leaves, crisp air, and foggy morning drives.
I made this cake out of the apples from my Aunt and Uncle’s backyard. And by backyard, I mean haven, absolute, garden of Eden. It’s huge, and when I took a tour of it a few weeks ago, I was bummed to the max that I didn’t bring my camera… maybe next time. I was able to take a few pics on my phone, so if you remember it from my Snapchat, there is your visual. I was lucky enough to walk away with a few boxes (yes, boxes!) of fun produce to test with. And one of the stand-out creations was this browned butter apple upside-down cake with a salted caramel drizzle.
Say that five times fast.
Okay, so browned butter? Why is it so cool and completely necessary for this cake? How does it work? I’m really glad you asked that.
You know how when you melt butter it separates into a yellow transparent oil and then a foamy white substance comes to the top? Well that is cream that hasn’t been refined out of the cow’s milk that the butter was made out of. As we know, milk has a low smoke point, therefore: we are able to brown butter. By browning the butter, you are really cooking the milk and that puts the beautiful, nutty, smoky taste into browned butter.
Food 101 over.
Let’s simply enjoy the fact that browned butter is good and with the addition of these beautiful Garden of Eden apples it makes this cake a five-star Fall dessert. Once I ran out of the Gravenstein apples, I ran to the store and bought some Granny Smith. I liked both equally in this cake, so I assume you could use any apples that you’d desire or that are at your disposal. Either apple you choose, let’s not forget to drizzle some of my salted caramel sauce on this guy. Don’t you just see yourself eating a slice with a piping hot cup of coffee? Can’t you just see that sticky fork on top of your empty plate?
I know I can, because that’s all I’ve been seeing since the inception of this cake.
Browned Butter Apple Upside-Down Cake
This is the cake that screams fall and has been the saving grace when I’m overflowing with Fall apples. Simple recipe to follow and to be enjoyed by all.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Ingredients
2 large or 3 small apples
1/4 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup cream
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup browned butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
Instructions
Place 1/2 cup of butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat and brown. This should take around 5 minutes. You will know it’s done when the foam increases and starts to turn brown itself. Place in the refrigerator so it can cool down slightly. Make sure that it doesn’t sit directly on the glass by placing a towel or hot pad underneath.
Line the bottom of a 10-inch cake pan with cooking spray and parchment paper then more cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Peel and cut the apples into small slices about 1/2-inch wide on the larger end. In a small saucepan, place the butter, cinnamon and 1/4 cup brown sugar over medium heat and once they have combined, add the apples and cream and stir. Place the lid on top of the pan and reduce heat to a slow simmer and cook until the apples have rendered their juices and become soft.
Sift all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and set aside. In a standing mixer add the sugar, butter and vanilla together. Add in the eggs one at a time. and whip until it looks like a caramel sauce. Add the flour and milk in three parts alternating between the other. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Take the caramel apple mixture and place in the bottom of the pan with the sauce. Arrange apples to your liking. Pour the cake batter directly on top of the apples and place in the middle rack of the preheated oven for 55-60 minutes.
Keywords: apple upside-down cake, apples, brown butter, browned butter, cake, fall
I’m definitely going to try this. I recently got a bunch of free apples from a local “Crop Swap” — there were so many apples from backyard trees (I made a few jars of apple butter with 2/3 of what I got from the swap).
I see rosemary on the plate. Have you ever steeped rosemary in a caramel sauce? Rosemary and caramel are a great combination that I learned from Shuna Lydon at the now-defunct Eggbeater blog (in one of her cooking classes). It’s simply a matter of steeping a branch of rosemary in a hot caramel sauce until you get as much rosemary essence as you desire, then removing the branch.
Um, that sounds amazing. I’ve never done that! I’m going to try that as soon as I can. I can imagine it would be amazing in caramel apples!
It is 4:40 pm on the west coast, so I’m pretty much wanting to rub my face all over this whole cake. Love how you staged it with the rosemary laurels, too- so pretty!
Thanks, Kirsten! I’m loving your rose funfetti cake, oh my gosh! Great styling!
This looks fantastic and I’m super excited because I love anything caramel and apple!! Do you cool it completely before you turn it out or what do you suggest since the recipe ends with the baking time? Please and thank you!!
Oh! I’m sorry I missed this question! I let it cool about at least 10-15 minutes before turning out. Hope this helps!
Can this be done in a cast iron ??
I think so! I haven’t tried it myself but I assume if the cast iron is big enough it should work!
Hi, I have a question: how would you incorporate ginger into this recipe? I’m interested in making a brown butter apple ginger cake and your recipe is the most appealing one I have found. I’m wondering if fresh ginger would be too potent, to use dry ginger powder instead?
That’s a great question! I might just add about 1 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger or a teaspoon of fresh. It sounds like a delicious addition! Thanks for asking!
Added bourbon to apple caramel! Game changer.