Easy Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake
Try this Easy Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake this Fall baking season for a beautiful and delicious cake everyone will love! It features a homemade vanilla cake topped with a delicious caramel sauce, fresh sliced apples, and baked upside down to perfection.
Easy Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake
Happy Fall, Ya’ll!
Today I’m sharing how to make my Easy Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake for a delicious and beautiful cake perfect for the Fall baking season ahead.
This Homemade Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake features a cinnamon vanilla cake that’s made from scratch, sliced fresh apples, and a simple brown sugar caramel sauce.
This caramel apple upside down cake not only tastes incredible but it’s a total showstopper that everyone will love.
If you want to learn how to make my Easy Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake, then keep reading below and check out my Youtube video tutorial over here.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel here for weekly recipes!
What you’ll love about caramel apple upside down cake:
Cara’s Tips:
- The Best Apples – Use baking apples such as Granny Smith or Honey Crisp, or a combination of the two for a balanced flavor of tart and sweet.
- Apple Essentials – Use an Apple Peeler and Apple Corer to quickly and easily prep your apples.
- My Favorite Pans – Bake in an 8″ x 3″ or 9″ x 2″ Round Cake Pan for best results. You can also double the recipe and make it in a 9×13 cake pan.
- 10-Minute Cooling Rule – Once your cake has fully baked, immediately put it on a cooling rack, and set a timer for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan. If you remove it too soon, the cake can fall apart, while waiting too long can cause the caramel to re-stick to the pan. 10 minutes is the magic number.
- Serving Ideas – Serve with Vanilla Ice Cream or Whipped Cream to make it even better.
More Apple Desserts You’ll Love:
- Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars
- Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake
- Maple Apple Skillet Cake
- Dutch Oven Apple Crisp
- Homemade Fried Apple Pies
How to Make Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake
This caramel apple upside down cake might look complicated, but it’s actually quite easy to prepare.
The star of the show in this apple upside down cake is of course the homemade caramel sauce which perfectly balances the tartness of the fresh apples, but don’t let that scare you away. I’ll walk you through it step-by-step below!
P.S. You can watch the full video tutorial over here!
Kitchen tools you’ll need
1. Slice Apples and Make Caramel Sauce
First, clean, peel, core, and slice 2 medium apples into 1/4 inch slices and set aside.
I like to use 1 Granny Smith and 1 Honey Crisp for balance, but you can use whichever baking apple is your favorite.
Next, prepare your caramel sauce.
How to Make Homemade Caramel Sauce
This homemade brown sugar caramel sauce is SO easy to make on the stovetop. To make the homemade caramel sauce, simply melt 1/4 cup of butter over medium heat.
Once melted, add in the light brown sugar and salt, and whisk until the sugar dissolves and the mixture gets lighter in color. This only takes a minute or so.
Once it starts to bubble and boil, remove from heat, and whisk in 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. Lastly add in 1-2 tablespoons of milk and whisk until smooth.
Immediately pour the caramel sauce into the prepared cake pan. Spread evenly until the entire bottom of the cake pan is covered with caramel sauce.
2. Line the Pan with Apples
Next arrange the apple slices on top of the caramel sauce, overlapping as needed.
Don’t worry about it being perfect, it will look beautiful when it’s done no matter what.
P.S. The first time I made this cake I only layered the apples in one layer. The second time I did a ring of apples on top, which you can see the difference in the photos below.
3. Prepare Cake Batter + Bake
In a large mixing bowl add the oil, sugar, yogurt or sour cream, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla extract and whisk until the mixture is smooth.
Next add in the flour in increments, whisking in between until combined. Do not over mix.
Pour the cake batter over the apples and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until the cake is a light golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean in the middle.
Immediately place on a cooling rack and let cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
4. Turn Upside Down and Remove from Pan
To remove the apple upside down cake from pan, place the serving plate or platter on top of the pan and quickly turn upside down.
Let the cake naturally fall out of the pan before removing.
Tip: If you sprayed your pan well enough you shouldn’t have any issues, but if you do have any sticking, you can always tap the outside of the pan with a butter knife to get the cake to release.
Once you remove the pan, remove any extra caramel sauce from the pan and drizzle on top of your warm cake. It will look so beautiful and delicious!
5. Serve and Enjoy
The cake will be warm and tender. For cleaner slices, wait 10-15 more minutes before cutting and serving. Serve as-is or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.
Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake Recipe
PrintEasy Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake
Try this Easy Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake this Fall baking season for a beautiful and delicious cake everyone will love! It features a homemade vanilla cake topped with a delicious caramel sauce, fresh sliced apples, and baked upside down to perfection.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Brown Sugar Caramel Sauce
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp sea salt
- 1–2 tbsp milk
Apple Layer
- 2 medium apples, peeled, cut into 1/4 inch slices (I recommend using Granny Smith and Honeycrisp)
Homemade Vanilla Cake
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour or (1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour + 2 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp salt)
- 1/3 cup neutral flavored oil
Instructions
Prep Work:
- Preheat oven to 350˚F and lightly spray the bottom of a 9×3 round cake pan with non stick spray. Place parchment paper that has been cut to size in the bottom of the pan and spray again with non-stick spray. Set aside and begin preparing your apples, caramel sauce, and cake.
- Clean, peel, core, and slice 2 medium apples into 1/4 inch slices and set aside. I personally used 1 granny smith and 1 honey crisp apple for a balanced flavor.
Caramel Sauce:
- In a saucepan, melt 1/4 cup of butter over medium heat until melted. Once melted, add in the light brown sugar and salt, and whisk until the sugar dissolves and the mixture gets lighter in color. This only takes a minute or so. Once it starts to bubble and boil, remove from heat, and whisk in 1/2 tsp of cinnamon. Lastly add in 1-2 tablespoons of milk and whisk until smooth. Immediately pour the caramel sauce into a cake pan that has been sprayed and lined with parchment paper. Tilt the pan from side to side so that the entire bottom of the cake pan is covered with caramel sauce.
- Next arrange the apple slices on top of the caramel sauce, overlapping as needed. Don’t worry about it being perfect, it will look beautiful when it’s done no matter what
Cake:
- In a large mixing bowl add the oil, sugar, yogurt or sour cream, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla extract and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Next add in the flour in increments, whisking in between until combined. Do not over mix.
- Pour the cake batter over the apples and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the cake is a light golden brown on the top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Immediately place cake pan onto a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes. Once cooled, place the serving plate or platter on top of the pan and quickly turn upside down. Let the cake naturally fall out of the pan before removing. If you sprayed your pan well enough you shouldn’t have any issues, but if you do you can always tap the outside of the pan with a butter knife to get the cake to release.
- Once you remove the pan, remove any extra caramel sauce from the pan and drizzle on top of your cake. It will look so beautiful and delicious!
- The cake will be warm and tender. For cleaner slices, let cool for 10-15 more minutes before cutting and serving. Serve as-is or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.
Notes
- Store leftover cake covered at room temperature for 3-4 days.
More Homemade Cakes You’ll Love
I hope you enjoyed today’s recipe for my Delicious Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake.
Thanks for stopping by! – Cara
Pin This Post
Delicious! I used a spring form pan, didn’t have as much caramel sauce as was pictured! Maybe leaked out?
Anyway will definitely make again.
Thanks, Maureen! I’d recommend using a regular cake pan next time just in case, but I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I have made this cake twice now for my husband and kids, and they are OB-SES-SED with it. I make a lot of desserts, and they swear this is the best cake they have ever had. Thank you for sharing the recipe! It’s so easy and has a great presentation! Also – kindly Unspoken – like the Kate Voegel song??
Thank you so much, I’m so happy too hear you all loved it! And yes, OTH fan for life haha!
Delicious! I did change it by using a boxed classic white cake. It worked great! It made 2 cakes so I doubled the ingredients.
Thanks, Esther! And yes – you can always use a boxed mix if preferred. So glad you enjoyed it.
This is amazing and so easy! I’ll definitely make it many more times in the future. I added speculaas spice mix to the caramel and the cake and it turned out incredible.
That sounds great! Glad you enjoyed it!