Ireland: Apple Upside-Down Cake

The Irish countryside is full of surprises for the creative baker, especially this time of year. Early apples are ripe on the trees: and the best of these are the heirloom apples, their trees often surviving half-forgotten in old suburban gardens or weedy vacant lots.

EuroCuisineLady is lucky enough to have one of these trees in the overgrown paddock next door. The branches may be bent with age and covered with moss, but the apples hanging on them are not only Granny Smiths, but (because of extra branches grafted on more than fifty years ago) one of the very first dessert apples, the increasingly rare heirloom apple variety Beauty of Bath, with its characteristic pink circles and markings in the creamy flesh. Like many early apples, Beauty of Bath has a very short "perfect" time for eating out of hand -- no more than a week. After that, you'd better pick as many of them as you can for cooking or pies...a favorite option, as their beautiful pink color intensifies when cooked.

The upside-down cake is a favorite autumn treatment for all those piled-up apples, heirloom or not -- a tart cooking apple will work as well in this recipe as an eating apple. Click on "read more" for the recipe...

The ingredients:

• 2 cups apples, cored and sliced

• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter

In a heavy frying pan, melt the butter until it bubbles and add the apples, stirring and turning them quickly in the first minute or so to cover all surfaces with butter. Turn the heat down and saute carefully, turning them as they brown. Do your best to keep the slices intact. When all are browned on both sides of each slice, add the brown sugar and stir gently to coat. Remove from heat and set aside.

For the cake:

• 4 ounces butter

• 3 ounces sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 pinch allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 5 ounces plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup milk or buttemilk

Preheat the oven to 350F / 175C (slightly lower if using a fan oven).

Beat the butter until light: add the sugar and cream with the butter until fluffy. Add the cinnamon, allspice, eggs and milk: then gradually mix in the flour mixed with baking powder and salt.

When the cake batter is ready, butter a deep pie dish or springform cake pan. Put in the sauteed apples, arranging them so that they cover the whole bottom of the pan as evenly as possible. Pour the batter over the apples and smooth it out so that it fills the pan evenly and completely covers the apples.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes until the cake is well risen and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow to rest for ten minutes or so before turning out onto a plate. Serve warm.

In Ireland, this would always be served with thick heavy pouring cream (not whipped!) -- the thicker, the better. If double cream is available, that's what to use.

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