my jerusalem kitchen

These days, I’m really suspicious of dessert recipes. The last two cakes I made were really disappointing and I feel like people lie all over the internet about the goodness of their recipes. It really upsets me when I put faith in a recipe and buy all the ingredients only to end up with a disappointing result. Well, not today. Today, I took dessert into my own hands and have something truly remarkable for you.

I never thought I’d see the day when I couldn’t put down a non-chocolate dessert, but it is here. I’ve been cutting my slices bigger an bigger each time I open the fridge as if the extra calories don’t exist. Aside from feeling totally impressed by the appearance of an upside down cake, this cake tastes simply sweet, light, and has the perfect amount of chewy on the edges.

You won’t be disappointed when you make this. That’s for sure. There’s also some wiggle room here: using peaches or nectarines instead of apples, or maybe figs, or pears, or pineapple…what about pitted cherry halves or plums?? Oooh yes, I want to do this with plums. And play with the spices. Go light on the cinnamon and try some ground cloves or go crazy with the figs and add some rosemary! (I saw a fig & rosemary jam recipe for this on Katherin Martinelli’s website that looks divine.) In other words, there is a lot of room for interpretation here because the actual cake batter tastes great and the fruit just becomes a matter of preference.

Recipe adapted from here

What you need:

3/4 c date honey (regular honey will work fine, too)

1 1/4 apple; sliced

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c butter; softened BUT  you can cut this in half and replace half with vegetable oil, which I did and it was delightful)

1/2 c sugar

2 eggs

almond flakes for garnish

How to do it:

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line a 9 inch round cake pan with parchment paper and cut it to fit inside. Make sure you have the right size tin here because I’ve done it with different shaped ones and if that cake batter gets too thin then the apples will sink into the cake! Lightly butter the parchment paper. Pour 1/4 c of your honey onto the parchment and then arrange your apple slices. Sprinkle cinnamon evenly over all the apple slices.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, cream together the butter (or butter & oil if you have divided the amount), remaining honey and sugar. Blend in the eggs. Add the dry ingredients until the batter is smooth and pour the batter over the apples, trying to pour it all over, evenly, so you don’t have to spread it too much and risk messing up your beautifully arranged fruit.

Bake for 30-40 minutes (depends on your oven) until you can stick a knife or toothpick into the center and it comes out clean. While this is baking, the center will look wobbly while the edges look like they are crisping. Do not worry! Let it cook for another five minutes or so, keeping a close eye on the cake until that center hardens like the rest of the cake. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes.

Once the cake is cool enough to touch, put a serving plate over the cake wrong-side up, and while holding both the cake and the plate, place both hands on either side and give the cake a quick flip. Now look at those beautiful apples! Sprinkle with some almond flakes and enjoy!