When I lived back East many years ago, I took my then pre-school daughter apple picking every year. We lived in beautiful New England where apple farms dotted the hillsides.
Every year my little gal and I would layer up and slide on our wellies and go traipsing through apple orchards, picking the succulent juicy apples and filling our buckets. I have vivid memories of my curly blonde haired gal bopping up and down singing and dancing through the orchards while picking apples off the ground instead of off the apple trees.
Of course we never missed the hay ride and hot apple cider served at the barn. I think that might have been my little gals most favorite part of apple picking.
All that apple picking resulted in weeks of apple recipes. Pies, breads, cakes, pancakes, waffles, baked apples, apple sauce and my little gal’s favorite, brown butter apples with her breakfast ham. This was back in the day when I hadn’t a clue how to cook. I faked it most the time and thankfully all that faking resulted in some pretty delicious food. Which is how the brown butter apples and ham came to be.
During one of our apple farm visits I found a little paperback of apple recipes. I’ve used the paperback so often it’s now tattered, torn, splattered and sporting a few coffee spills. I love this little book. Written by a cookbook author and illustrator who hand wrote her cookbooks in calligraphy with the sweetest illustrations. One of my most loved recipes in this book is the Upside Down Apple Gingerbread. I simply call it Apple Gingerbread.
Rich in color and flavor but not overly sweet, this gingerbread deliciously pairs with a cup of coffee or tea. I haven’t altered the recipe too much, although I omit the cloves. The gingerbread is so rich and flavorful I felt it just didn’t need the cloves. However, I’ve kept it in the recipe if you’d like to use ground cloves. There is also a fun twist in this recipe – a 3/4 cup of black coffee, which subtly intensifies the rich flavor of the gingerbread.
Truly an autumn treat that makes you want to gather at the table with family and friends.
Delicious Wishes and Loads of Love,
Karista
Upside Down Apple Gingerbread
Serves 8
Ingredients in order of use
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 cups sliced apples
1/3 cup brown sugar
——
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
——
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (I leave this out but feel free to include it)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 cup hot black coffee
1 – 10inch springform pan
Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 350F.
Pour 1/4 cup melted butter into a 10″ springform pan. Arrange the apples and sprinkle with the 1/3 cup brown sugar.
In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup melted butter with molasses, sugar, brown sugar and egg.
In another bowl, mix together the remaining dry ingredients and then add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the black coffee.
Pour the batter over the apples.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until the cake is firm to the touch. Cool for 15 minutes before inverting pan and releasing the spring. I baked my cake about 55 minutes. The cake is very moist.
Enjoy!
Recipe from the book “Apples” part of the Country Kitchen Collection written and illustrated by Jean Childress
What a delicious sounding cake this is…and I love that it has coffee in it, too. I just got some of the first apples in our area and will be starting the apple train here soon. This looks like a winner of a recipe to try!
Thanks Betsy! I do love this cake it tastes of fall. Very moist and so rich! Happy Baking 🙂
I’m ready for Fall!
Gotta have this cake. xo
It just tastes like Fall Coco. Enjoy!
So, to be clear, there is 3/4 cup of melted butter in this recipe, right? I am not seeing that amount in the list of ingredients.
Yes. 1/4 cup melted butter in the bottom of a springform pan and then layer the apples. Then sprinkle brown sugar. Then the next 1/2 cup is mixed with the following four ingredients. I’ve had the same question so I’ll go back and edit to be more clear. Thanks and hope you enjoy the recipe!
Thanks for the clarification!
But I still think that extra 1/2 cup of melted butter should be included in the list of ingredients and not just in the directions for clarity.
I am definitely going to bake this as soon as I have a supply of apples! Sounds delicious, and I’ll love how it will smell while it’s baking.
Ack! I didn’t list it in the original posting! So sorry Linda. My mistake. It’s corrected now.
Great cake for fall!
Thank you my dear! It tastes like Fall 🙂
Karista, I love your stuff, but the recipe is jacked. I have everything on the counter but I am stuck. It calls for 1/4 butter but then 1/2 cup butter and brown sugar is listed twice so I don’t know how muc. I can fake it, but thought you might want to fix it 🙂 looks yummy either way. Also, saw the bit on the magazine that is under development….awecome….
sorry for typos, was typing from phone and had sticky fingers from cooking!
Lol! no worries 🙂
at risk of being a cyber stalker on Karista’s beautiful site,by responding 3 times….. I will add that i went forward…..took a bit of sugar and a bit of butter out as I wasn’t sure it was an error, added fresh ginger to apples, and left called for ground ginger to dry ingredients and threw in an Americano vs. coffee and it was AWESOME. Karista….you rock. Now that Karista has clarified recipe is okay as “is”…..move forward Blog peeps. Enjoy~
Hahaha! You rock Suzann! Well done!
Hi Suzann, The recipe reads all ingredients in order. 1/4 cup melted butter in the bottom of a pan and then layer the apples and sprinkle with brown sugar. Then 1/2 cup butter with the next four ingredients. Butter and brown sugar are mentioned twice. I can see where this might be confusing so I’ll go back and give more explanation. Hope this helps. Thank you!
Suzann I edited the recipe to be more explanatory. Hope this helps!! Thank you!
I can smell the cake from here! I still love to go apple-picking, a wonderful fall tradition. Saving this one for later in the month!
Oh it made my entire house smell of Autumn! I’m dragging the husband and my youngest daughter apple picking next weekend. They weren’t terribly excited at first but now that the weather is cooling a bit I think I can rally them. 🙂
Oooh, this does look delicious! Apples are perfect with the dark ginger bread! I”m loving the coffee addition, cuz who doesn’t need a little more coffee?!
Lol! Right! I love the coffee addition as well. It seemed to intensify the flavors and keep the gingerbread from being overly sweet. It’s a lush one! Thanks for stopping by Kari!
Yikes I almost didn’t read this post. I would have missed an outstanding recipe. Totally over the top. Gingerbread has lost some of its glory in the spotlight in the last few years. But this version will send it right back in the limelight.
Thank you! I felt the same Carol. Gingerbread somehow feels forgotten. But I’m hoping to change that with this little cake. 🙂
perfect cake to welcome fall!