Author: Kelly Neil

With cool fall temperatures finally here there’s nothing that makes me happier than turning on my oven and baking. I came up with this SweeTango Apple Toffee Upside Down Cake Recipe, with a nice spicy bite from homemade chai spice, using SweeTango apples grown right here in my home province of Nova Scotia.

Ingredients: 

Toffee Sauce
¼ cup butter
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup heavy cream

Cake
2 SweeTango apples
1 ¼ cup spelt flour
2-3 teaspoons Homemade Chai Spice
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup sugar
½ cup butter, melted
2 eggs
½ cup milk
½ teaspoon vanilla

Chai Spice
3 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon white pepper

Instructions:

1. Prepare pan and make toffee sauce. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Generously butter a 9-inch round cake pan. Line buttered pan with parchment and butter parchment. Set aside and make toffee sauce as per directions below. Pour toffee sauce into prepared pan and set aside.

2. Peel and cut SweeTango apples. Peel, core, and slice SweeTango apples to your preference. Arrange apple pieces gently on top of toffee sauce.

3. Whisk dry ingredients. In a medium-large bowl mix spelt flour, homemade chai spice, baking powder, and salt to well combine. Set aside.

4. Mix wet ingredients. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or with a handheld mixer, mix sugar and melted butter until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until well combined, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl. Add milk and vanilla and mix until well combined.

5. Add dry ingredients to wet. With mixer running on low slowly add dry ingredients to wet. When all dry ingredients have been added allow mixer to continue to run until everything is just combined. Stop mixer and scrape down side of bowl to make sure everything is well incorporated. Gently scoop and spread cake batter evenly on top of apples trying not to disturb the arrangement of the apples in the toffee sauce.

6. Bake cake. Place pan in oven and bake 25-30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes then turn out onto a plate or platter. Serve as is or with ice cream, warm or cold.

Toffee Sauce

1. Cook butter and sugar. Place butter and sugar in a small pot and cook over medium heat. Stir gently until butter melts to help dissolve sugar, but once the butter has melted do not stir again. This is very important!

2. Add cream to make sauce. Cook butter and sugar to a deep amber colour, remove from heat, and slowly add cream, whisking constantly. Set aside to cool.

Homemade Chai Spice

1. Mix spices together. Use anywhere you would use cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice.