Apple and Pomegranate Upside Down Cake

It’s the season for baking and I simply cannot resist making another holiday cake! I have this tried and tested recipe for Upside Down Cake that I have made many times over with various fruits and they always come out great. Last year, I made the Cranberry Upside Down Cake which not only looks gorgeous it’s also truly scrumptious. I thought for a change that I will experiment with Apples – however that would feel more like an autumn cake rather than a Christmas one. To add in the festive red color of Christmas, I decided to sprinkle/dot the base of the cake with pomegranate seeds – after all – pomegranates are quintessential winter fruits that appear on our groceries just before the Christmas season.

I  do love to eat them on their own and occasionally use them as garnish like in my Holiday/Festive Quinoa recipe. However, I have never tried baking with them. So seeing that I already have the perfect recipe for the cake batter – I thought, how can I go wrong? I truly loved it! I love biting into the soft and moist cake and then suddenly getting that crunch from the pomegranate seeds. I think I ate several slices just because I enjoyed it so much. My kids loved it too though they literally picked out each seed out of the cake (as they didn’t fancy the seeds in it) but they went totally crazy over the apples. So, since it’s a matter of preference – feel free to add the pomegranates if you like it but if you don’t like to have that extra crunch – then, no worries, you simply cannot go wrong with juicy apples in a cake! Either way, this cake pleases with its delicious flavor! Please enjoy!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspooon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoon butter and 1 stick butter (room temp)
6 Tablespoons sugar plus 1/2 cup sugar (separate each sugar)
2 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly
1/2 cup Pomegranate seeds
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup whole or 2 % milk
2 Tablespoons Apricot Jam (optional)

Procedure


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease a round cake pan with a little butter. Set it aside.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set it aside.

Melt 6 tablespoons of the butter and sugar on medium heat in a small saucepan. Continue to stir until the mixture comes to the boil. Pour this evenly over the bottom of the cake pan and and top with the sliced apples. Scatter the pomegranate seeds all over. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer beat the remaining stick of butter on medium speed until smooth. Add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and continue to beat until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Pour in the vanilla extract and then add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half of the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter. Mix in the milk, then the rest of the dry ingredients. Batter will be thick.

Spoon the batter over the apples and pomegranate seeds and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

Bake in a preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the cake is golden and a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and run a blunt knife between the sides of the pan. Carefully turn the cake out onto a serving platter. If any of the fruits stick to the pan – as they might – just scrape them off with a knife and return them to the cake.

In a small pan, warm the Apricot jam on low heat, about 2 minutes until it has the consistency of a glaze and is easily spreadable. Gently brush the glaze over the hot cake. This makes the cake glisten nicely but this is totally optional – more for aesthetics rather than taste.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or sweetened whipped cream! If you don’t fancy any sort of cream with it, that’s fine – it’s yummy all on its own. Fruity deliciousness at its best!
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Doesn’t this slice look so moist and luxurious! Take a bite. 🙂

Last updated on October 1st, 2019 at 12:18 pm