Apple Upside-Down Cake
This recipe comes from a baking book called Sweet and Natural, by Meredith McCarty. All of her recipes are sugar free and dairy free. This apple cake, made with mostly whole wheat flour and sweetened with maple syrup, is a fall family favorite. It is best eaten the day it is baked.
Cake
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/4 cup cornmeal or almond meal
2 1/4 teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil (I use avocado oil or refined coconut oil)
1/2 cup maple syrup
2/3 cup apple juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Topping
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 pound apples (2 or 3), peeled and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon each cinnamon and nutmeg
1/2 cup walnuts chopped, optional
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a baking parchment circle or square in the bottom of a cake pan, a deep dish pie pan, or an 8-inch square baking dish to ensure that all the fruit will be released from the pan. Oil the sides.
2. To prepare the cake batter, mix the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk the wet ingredients together and mix into dry.
3. Spread the oil and sweeter evenly over the paper lining in the pan. Toss fruit with spices and arrange in a single layer of fruit close together or overlapping in a spiral or concentric circles. Or layer fruit slices in 3 rows to cover the bottom of the square pan. Sprinkle with walnuts and pour batter evenly over fruit.
4. Bake until cake tests done in the middle and apples are tender, about 35-40 minutes.
5. Cool the cake in the pan set on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. Invert the cake onto a serving plate and leave it there for about 2 minutes. Lift off the pan and peel off the paper.
