This Brown Sugar Upside Down Apple Cake is a old fashioned apple cake with a modern shortcut in the ingredients list! It’s beautiful, delicious and super easy to make!
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Yep, I was 100% channeling my Colonial Williamsburg past life when I was making and photographing this Brown Sugar Upside Down Apple Cake and I LOVE how it turned out. This recipe was inspired by an Upside Down Apple Cake recipe that I found in my Recipes from Old Virginia cookbook. The recipe in that one is from scratch but I wanted to make a short cut version and I LOVE doctored cake mix recipes. I love how this recipe turned out.
What you’ll need for Brown Sugar Upside Down Apple Cake: (amounts below in recipe)
- white cake mix (DO NOT follow directions or ingredients on box)
- vegetable oil
- milk
- eggs
- apples, cored and sliced into rings
- butter
- brown sugar
- ground cinnamon (optional)
Making an Upside Down Apple Cake
Using a springform pan is, in my opinion, the best way to make this Brown Sugar Upside Down Apple Cake. You can use a regular pan if that’s all you have but I like how easy it is to un-hook the sides of a spring form pan when you’re getting ready to flip this cake out.
Preparing the pan and the brown sugar topping.
Yep, the topping it going down first! This cake is going to get flipped upside down after it’s baked so we’re starting from the top and working our way up/down when layering.
Let me show you…
In the bottom of a 9 inch spring-form pan (or cake pan), add slices of butter and brown sugar. Sprinkle cinnamon over brown sugar.
Stick pan onto a rimmed baking sheets and place into preheating oven, leave there just long enough to melt butter – about 3-5 minutes.
Remove from oven.
I like to place my spring form pan onto a baking sheet just in case any of the butter melts out, it will melt onto to the baking sheet and not down into my oven.
You don’t have to do this next step but I like to take a spatula and kind of smooth and flatten the butter and brown sugar out onto the bottom of the pan.
Next, fan apple slices onto the bottom of the pan, slightly overlapping each other until entire bottom of the pan is covered.
Pour cake batter over apples and give the pan a slight tap onto the counter to release any air bubbles.
Bake in preheated oven for about 1 hour.
Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
Flipping the Upside Down Apple Cake
Flipping a cake is scary. Heck yes it is! You’ve just put time and ingredients into a cake and now I’m telling you to flip the whole thing upside down.
Trust me though, it’s gonna be worth it.
Remove sides of spring-form pan and place a serving plate on top of the cake.
Flip entire cake over onto serving plate and then remove the bottom of the spring-form pan to reveal the apples.
Ta-Da!
A beautiful Brown Sugar Upside Down Apple Cake!
If you flip the cake over and it seems to be too warm and the side are starting to sag, just slip the springform ring back around the cake until it cools.
Also, I wanted to mention that apples can be cored and sliced into rings OR cut into thin wedges for this cake. Either way is fine.
In the photos above the apples are cored and sliced into rings but in this photo below you can see that when I made this cake for my friend, Brandy, that I cut the apples into wedges instead. Both ways turn out beautiful!
Love apples?? Here are more awesome apple recipes to make
Brown Sugar Upside Down Apple Cake
Apples can be cored and sliced into rings OR cut into thin wedges. Either way is fine. Spice cake mix would also be awesome with this. If you flip the cake over and it seems to be too warm and the side are starting to sag, just slip the springform ring back around the cake until it cools. Brown Sugar Upside Down Apple Cake
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 12
Serving Size: 1 slice
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 200Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 4gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 74mgSodium: 90mgCarbohydrates: 19gFiber: 1gSugar: 14gProtein: 4g
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Mary says
This looks amazing and I love that you did a short cut version, can’t wait to try it!
Angie says
I hope that you love it!
Billie says
Do you not peel the apples? It just says to core and slice them.
Angie says
Hi! Nope. I don’t peel the apples for this particular recipe. Just core and slice them.
Lisa says
Can you use a Bundt pan for this recipe?
Angie says
I’m sure you can but I haven’t made it in a bundt pan. You would need to make sure to spray the inside very well so it doesn’t stick into the curves.
Angela Carter says
What kind of apples do you recommend?
Angie says
I personally love honeycrisps for this cake
Sharon says
Are the apples pared?
Angie says
Do you mean, peeled? No, I didn’t peel them.