This caramel apple upside down cake is a fall must-make. Combining a soft cinnamon-spiced cake with buttery caramelized apples, we’re essentially getting two desserts in one. After inverting, the topping’s juices seep down into the cake and add unbeatable flavor and moisture. What you’ll love most, besides the flavors, is that there’s no fancy decoration required—the lovely garnish is literally baked into the cake!
One of the first dessert recipes I published was caramel apple upside down cake. It’s a forever favorite and totally deserving of that early spot in my archives. I bake this recipe at least once every fall season and have made a couple minor updates to the recipe over the years. The cake is better than ever. I figured you’d appreciate seeing what I’ve done!
This Caramel Apple Upside Down Cake Is:
- Melt-in-your-mouth soft & moist, like this apple cake but remixed a bit!
- Extra flavorful like my beloved apple cinnamon bread
- Easy—no crazy ingredients or techniques required
- Perfectly sized for a small family or gathering
- The best destination for your freshly picked apples 😉
Try it at least once. I guarantee it will be a repeat recipe in your kitchen. And if you are looking for even more inspiration, here is a list of 30+ fall cake recipes.
Apple Upside Down Cake Topping
The topping is baked underneath the cake. After the cake slightly cools, we’ll invert it onto a serving plate. The caramel flavor comes from the butter and brown sugar. Combined with vanilla and apples, the topping alone makes this a recipe worth repeating. It’s downright GOOD.
I know you’ll appreciate this: I mention this above, but it’s worth repeating. Apple upside down cake is basically already frosted—once you invert the cake, the garnish is already there! Use apple slices, not chunks, just like I recommend for apple cobbler.
A few preliminary notes on the topping:
- The topping in my original recipe had a little too much butter. I also reduced the cinnamon and put more in the cake itself.
- Melt the butter and brown sugar together on the stove, then cook for 1 minute. The mixture will slightly thicken and take on a caramel-like flavor that intensifies as the cake bakes. Not a lot of recipes do this, but it makes a big flavor difference. In my pineapple upside down cake recipe, we simply add melted butter to the cake pan and sprinkle the brown sugar on top. As a result, you don’t really get the same caramel flavor. Perfectly fine for that recipe, but why not take an extra minute here?
- Arrange the apple slices on top of the butter/brown sugar mixture. Try to squeeze as many apple slices in the pan as you can. No one has ever complained about extra caramel-y apples!
Let’s Make the Cake Batter
The cake batter is pretty straightforward and similar to the original recipe. Like most cakes, the base is creamed butter and sugar. Regular sugar lightens up the crumb, while brown sugar adds flavor. We use both in this cake. The cake is super soft and cinnamon-spiced—similar in taste and texture to apple cupcakes.
The batter differs from my pineapple upside down cake. Pineapple rings are heavier than apple slices, so we use cake flour, egg whites, and sour cream in that recipe to help keep the crumb light. Here we can use whole eggs and all-purpose flour.
Two Baking Tips:
- You can bake this cake in a cake pan or pie dish, but make sure it’s at least 2 inches deep. I recommend this pie dish, which is 1.8 inches deep but I never have an overflow issue.
- Because of the wet bottom layer (which is the topping), the cake takes much longer than a typical 1 layer cake. Its juices will bubble up the sides, creating these incredible caramelized edges. (See the edges below? They’re so good!) With upside down cakes, it’s always good practice to place a baking pan or sheet on a lower rack to catch any juices should they splatter over the edges.
Expect a Dense Cake
I’ve made hundreds of upside down cakes, or so it seems, and I say with 100% certainty that this style of cake will always be on the denser side. (Unless you are using store-bought cake mix.) The cake is served upside down. The weight of the topping, which is the bottom of the cake as it bakes, weighs down the crumb beneath it. Upside down cake will never be as light and airy as white cake. If you were to make this exact cake batter and serve it right-side-up, the cake would taste much airier. Does that make sense?
While this apple upside down cake is mega soft and not nearly as dense as, say, pound cake, it’s not overly light either. I know you’ll love its unique texture, especially paired with the caramel apple topping. Let me know how you like it!
PrintCaramel Apple Upside Down Cake
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Yield: serves 8-10
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This stunning apple upside down cake combines a soft cinnamon-spiced cake with a delicious buttery caramel topping. Pack those apples into the pan—this cake can hold a lot and you won’t regret those extra slices!
Ingredients
Topping
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 medium apples, peeled and sliced into 1/4-inch slices (1.5–2 cups, or 188–250g, apple slices)*
Cake
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 6 Tablespoons (90ml) whole milk, at room temperature*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Prepare topping first: Combine butter and brown sugar together in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk occasionally until butter has melted. Cook, whisking constantly, for 1 minute as mixture thickens. Remove from heat and whisk in the cinnamon and vanilla extract. Pour into an ungreased 9×2 inch pie dish or round cake pan. (Make sure the pan is 2 inches deep. I recommend this pie dish, which is 1.8 inches deep but I never have an overflow issue.) Arrange the apple slices neatly on top, overlapping where necessary. See photo above. Place pan in the refrigerator for a few minutes as you prepare the cake batter. This helps solidify or “set” the topping’s arrangement.
- Make the cake batter: Whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together. Set aside.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add both sugars and beat on high speed until creamed together, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. On high speed, beat in the eggs and vanilla extract until combined. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Turn the mixer onto low speed and as the mixer runs, slowly pour in the milk. Beat on low speed just until all of the ingredients are combined. Do not over-mix. You may need to whisk it all by hand to make sure there are no lumps at the bottom of the bowl. The batter will be slightly thick.
- Remove topping from the refrigerator. Pour and spread cake batter evenly over topping.
- Bake for 40–46 minutes, tenting foil on top of the cake halfway through bake time to prevent the top from over-browning before the center has a chance to fully cook. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out mostly clean—a couple moist crumbs are OK. Don’t be alarmed if your cake takes longer or if the cake rises up and sticks to the foil. (We serve the cake upside down anyway!)
- Remove cake from the oven and cool on a wire rack for just 15 minutes. Invert the slightly cooled cake onto a cake stand or serving plate. Some of the juices from the topping will seep over the sides—that’s ok. You can slice and serve the cake warm, but the slices will be messy. I find it’s best to cool the cake completely at room temperature before slicing and serving. Do not refrigerate the cake to speed up the cooling process because it could end up tasting overly dense.
- Cover leftover slices and store for up to 3 days in the refrigerator or 3 months in the freezer. Thaw at room temperature. I don’t recommend freezing the cake as a whole because the topping arrangement doesn’t thaw very nicely. See make ahead instructions below.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can refrigerate the topping in step 2 for up to 1 day. If refrigerating for longer than 1 hour, cover it tightly. Other than that, this isn’t the best cake to make ahead of time or freeze because the apples will settle down into the cake—while still tasty, the presentation won’t be as pleasing. You can, however, prepare the cake batter’s wet ingredients (cover and refrigerate) and dry ingredients (cover at room temperature) separately up to 1 day ahead of time, then continue with the recipe the next day. Let the wet ingredients come to room temperature before mixing.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Saucepan | Whisk | 9-inch Pie Dish | Glass Mixing Bowl | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Cooling Rack
- Old Recipe: The current cake recipe was updated in 2020. If you loved the old cake recipe, originally published in 2012, here it is: increase the topping’s butter to 1/2 cup (1 stick; 115g) and add 1/4 teaspoon each of ground cloves and ground nutmeg when you stir in the cinnamon. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of walnuts on top of the apples before pouring/spreading on the cake batter. In the cake batter, reduce the milk to 1/4 cup (60ml).
- Apples: Use your favorite variety of apple. I typically use Granny Smith, Fuji, or Honeycrisp. Here’s more on the best apples to use for baking.
- Milk: Whole milk is best, but you can use lower fat or nondairy milk if needed.
- Why is everything at room temperature? All refrigerated items should be at room temperature so the batter mixes together easily and evenly. Read more about the importance of room temperature ingredients.
Heaven!! Cant believe i can bring joy to the family, it was passible just by your special recipe. Thanks Lovely sally
I made this yesterday, and it came out great. I used a 9-1/2″ x 1-1/2″ Pyrex pie pan, and it worked perfectly. The batter rose up a little over the top of the pan while baking, but since the batter is so thick, it didn’t spill over. I recommend greasing the pan. I sprayed my pan with non-stick spray, and the cake still stuck a little on the edge. Next time, I’ll spray the pan again and run a knife around the edge before turning the cake out onto a plate. Also, I don’t recommend putting foil on top while baking unless the cake is getting way too brown. I sprayed foil with non-stick spray and placed it loosely on top, and the cake stuck to the foil and took off part of the top. Luckily, it still had about 15 minutes to bake when I discovered this, so I removed the foil in time to brown the top of the cake. My cake was perfectly done in 50 minutes. Thank you for another great recipe!
I wish I had read your comment before I tried this! I followed the recipe, exactly. I used the same pie plate. Since the recipe said an UNgreased pie plate, I did not grease it. After waiting 15 minutes when it came out of the oven, I turned it upside down onto a plate & the cake stuck badly on the sides all the way around the pie plate, so just the center of the cake plopped out onto my plate. ☹️ It’s a shame, because the top of it is beautiful! I also did the tenting of the foil, and, like you, half way through I ended up taking the foil off to let the top brown some more. I’m not sure how Sally makes this and does not grease her pie plate and keeps it from sticking on the sides? Sally????
Hi Missy! If the topping is sticking, we wonder if your topping could be a bit too thick to start with. If it thickens too much on the stove, it could cause this issue. Try reducing the temperature on your stove a bit next time (medium-low) to prevent this. Hope that helps for next time!
Hi Sally
Can we use applesauce instead of eggs?
Hi Yara, we don’t recommend that swap here.
I wouldn’t swap applesauce for the eggs, but you might be able to swap applesauce for the butter in the cake batter. I often swap applesauce for the butter/oil in recipes.
So smells great in the oven now, plan on bringing to work tomorrow. How would I best store it overnight? Th and!!
In the oven now, smells great! Planning on bringing to work tomorrow , how would I best store overnight? Thanks!
Hi Ned, since the cake needs to cool completely at room temperature, you can simply leave it covered overnight at room temperature before bringing to work. Refrigerate any leftovers. Hope it’s a hit!
This cake is amazing! My friend messaged me to try it and I made it the same day. It’s so light and flavorful. The second time I made it, I doubled the apples just because I love apples. I used a 10 inch cake pan since I don’t have a pie plate – no overflow!
Made this on my sister’s recommendation. Was delicious – not overly sweet. Took the suggestion to add some walnuts between the apples and the batter – added great taste and texture. Used a springform pan with some foil wrapped around it in case of leakage (minimal). Made it very easy to release. Thanks for the recipe!
Can i line a 9 inch cake tin with parchment paper for this recipe?
Hi Giselle, that should work!
Thank you!
So, the original recipe was posted in 2012, then updated in 2020 and again in 2023. Presumably the most up to date version would be shown at the top, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Your note on the update from 2012 to 2020 says, “increase the topping’s butter to 1/2 cup (1 stick; 115g) and add 1/4 teaspoon each of ground cloves and ground nutmeg when you stir in the cinnamon. Sprinkle 1/4 cup of walnuts on top of the apples before pouring/spreading on the cake batter. In the cake batter, reduce the milk to 1/4 cup (60ml). But, these changes aren’t shown in the recipe at the top, which would have made a big difference. I made the recipe shown at the top of the page & would not rave about it nor would I make it again. The cake wasn’t dense, (No, I did not overmix) juice from the topping didn’t seep over the sides or down through the cake, nor were the spices & amounts up to the mark. Tge batter was blah. The addition of cloves (shown in old update notes but not in recipe at the top) would have helped.
Over the years, I’ve made made many of your recipes and loved every one of them! This cake made with the ingredients & amounts specified at top was a huge disappointment.
I’m going to try this in a Dutch Oven and see how it go
Could I use a cast iron skillet to make this? I’ve used it before for other upside down fruit cakes with success ( although it’s heavy to flip!)
Hi Aly, a cast iron skillet should be great. We recommend at least a 10 inch size.
My glass pie dish was only 1.6”, so opted for my ancient 3” spring form pan. Followed instructions exactly. And, like all your recipes…this is delicious! I could probably have arranged the apple slices a bit more artistically, but otherwise perfect – and no leaking out of the pan. Just caramel-y goodness. Thanks, Sally!
Can this recipe be made with gluten free flour?
Hi Diana, we haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flours but let us know if you do!
Can we use caramel sauce instead of the butter and sugar?
Hi Mo, caramel sauce will be much too thick to use in the cake here. You could, however, drizzle it on top of the finished cake if you’d like!
Great cake, have made it several times with apples. I have lots of pears, can I use them in this recipe?
Hi Ana, absolutely! No other changes to the recipe needed.
I would love to see this (and others!) scaled down for 2-3 people. Love your 6” cake recipes!
In your photos there are clear and white pie pans. I clicked through to amazon and saw clear and stainless steel listed. Which pie pan material do you recommend?
Hi Cynthia, we love and recommend this clear pie dish. The clear bottoms helps you see when your cake (or pie) is finished baking. The white dish you see in the post is the cake stand it’s served on (completely optional, just what we used for these photos!). Hope this helps and that you enjoy the cake.
Hi Sally, et al —
I’m making your banana cake today, but this will be next. Is there any reason I can’t use your spice cake batter (halved)? Or a gingerbread batter? Thanks.
Hi Linda, you could definitely try this with the spice batter cut in half. Let us know how it turns out!
This looks delicious. Am I right in saying that there’s no need to grease or line the bottom of the glass pie dish? Thanks!
That’s correct, Joseph! You’ll want to use an ungreased pan.
The combination of the butter and caramel makes this cake delicious, I used less butter 4 tbsp and less sugar, amazing!
Will this work with Earth Balance instead of butter (to make it dairy free)?
We haven’t tested that but let us know if you do!
I’m wondering if you tried with Earth Balance butter. If so, what we’re your results? Anything need tweaked?
This was PHENOMENAL!!! I used about 1.5 pink lady apples and they worked perfectly and softened right up. The cake is so moist, perfectly spiced, and effortless! I served it after dinner and despite a large meal, the entire cake was demolished within the hour. I’ll absolutely be adding this to my repertoire, thank you so much for sharing!
WOW! I made this recipe at 10 am and I don’t expect it to last until 5 pm tonight even though there are only three people here.
Another Amazingly Awesome Assembly of Appetizing Addicitions!! Five Stars & Five A’s!
Delicious and fantastic recipe, will definitely make this again. Thank you for sharing!
I’d like to make a banana foster upside down cake. Could I change up the topping but follow these instructions? Also, could I used a cast iron to bake it in? Thank you!!
Hi Anna! We haven’t tested a banana version of this cake so can’t offer much advice. Let us know if you try it! A cast iron skillet should be great. We recommend at least a 10 inch size.
Great recipe! Great flavour in the cake and definitely didn’t find it to dense! I switched it up a little with the topping by layering blackberries in aswell as apple and was amazing, also gave a little colour pop to the cake
Another winning cake recipe! A joy to bake and an absolute delicious success!
This… This is amazing. I like a little extra spice so I rounded the cinn and nutmeg for the cake part. I also used a 9″ spring form pan and lined the bottom with parchment for a cleaner “removal.” Added and extra apple and had to add a little time (thank you for the wonderfully detailed notes!). It’s cold and rainy here today in New England and this was a perfect finish to a vegetable barley soup!!
Hi Kat – I loved reading your comment as I am about to try this recipe and prefer a springform pan (and lots of apple). Any other tips you learned from doing it that way? thanks!
Haaiii do you have a video for this cake. I am going to make it tomorrow but i am a little bit scarred to do it.. whithout a video …
Hi Aimee, I’m sorry, we don’t have a video for this cake yet. But don’t be scared! Follow along with Sally’s step-by-step instructions in the recipe card, and make sure you read through it completely before you get started, including the recipe notes. Let us know how it turns out!
This recipe looks delicious. Before I make it I wanted to ask if I could keep it out on the table in my new cake dome that I got for Christmas or do I have to put it in the icebox between servings?
Hi Jason! Cake leftovers should be kept in the fridge. Hope you love it!
Can I use a 10” glass pie plate?
Hi Eleanor, a 10-inch pie dish is a bit too large and the cake will be quite thin. We recommend sticking with a 9-inch pie dish for best results.