We still have lots of apples in the garden, so I was trying to think of ways to use them up other than making apple butter (we now have enough apple butter to get us through the next apocalypse, or winter, whichever comes first!) It’s the time of year for caramel apples. I do like the idea of caramel apples, but I have never been a big fan of eating them. They always seem kind of impossible to eat and raw apple and caramel is not nearly as nice as slowly cooked apple and caramel. So, instead of caramel apples, I came up with this caramel apple cake. It’s essentially a cake, but it’s also like a French Tarte Tatin. The apples are cooked in caramel sauce, with some toasted pecans in a skillet with the cake mixture on top. When cooked the cake is inverted to reveal all those gooey and delicious caramel apples spiked with toasted caramel pecans. Its way better than a sticky caramel apple. For one it’s a cake, and who can resist gooey warm apples and toasted pecans covered in sweet, salty caramel! This cake is especially good served warm with some vanilla ice-cream. It’s not quite as pretty as a caramel apple, but I guarantee all of this cake will be gobbled up.
Ingredients
Caramel layer
- 200g sugar
- 80ml of water
- pinch of salt
- 2 large apples, peeled, cored and cut into slices
- 40g of toasted pecans, roughly chopped
Cake
- 110g of salted Kerrygold butter, slightly softened
- 150g of white sugar
- 60g of pecans (ground – blitz them in a food processor for a few seconds)
- 100g of all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- 3 eggs, beaten together
- Vanilla extract
Method
- Place the sugar, water and salt in a 10 inch skillet over a medium high heat. (Make sure and use a skillet that is non stick and oven proof).
- Without stirring, allow the sugar to dissolve, and continue to cook until the mixture turns a golden amber color.
- Take the skillet off the heat, and arrange the apple slices on top of the caramel.
- Scatter the 40g of pecans over the apple slices, and leave aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F / 180 C.
- Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Gradually beat in the eggs, beating well between each addition.
- Add the vanilla, and fold in the flour, baking powder and ground pecans, until the cake mix is well combined.
- Pour the cake mixture over the caramel apples.
- Place the cake in the oven for 30-40 minutes. To test if the cake is cooked, place a sharp knife in the center. If the knife comes out clean, the cake is fully cooked.
- Allow the cake to cool in the skillet for a few minutes, and then invert the cake onto a serving plate.
