Rustic Pumpkin and Apple Upside Down Cake

This may sound like it could be a heavy carrot cakey like confection but surprisingly it turned out very light and delicate! and so very more-ish! I adapted it from this RECIPE from Aunty Beeb (the BBC) and found yet another way to use up some of my seemingly never ending supply of apples from my trees out the back:

The first order of the day is to peel and slice 2 medium sized apples and keep the slices in cold water with either a spoon of vinegar or lemon to stop them from browning. Now make my go to Sticky Toffee Sauce which I am finding can be added to almost any sweet recipe out there - I am a BIG fan.

STICKY TOFFEE SAUCE:

2 1/2oz/ heaped 1/4 cup brown sugar 

1 1/2 oz / 3 tablespoons salted butter

2 tablespoons cream or half and half

1. Put all three ingredients in a pan to melt together, mix and keep mixing whilst letting it bubble a couple of minutes until it gets a bit thick - allow to cool and pour into a 9" diameter cake pan.

2. Take apple slices out of the water, pat dry and arrange in the cake pan over the toffee sauce in whatever manner you chose and with as few or as many slices as you like. 

Now to make the batter for the cake:

CAKE: Have everything at room temperature

Pre heat the oven to 350F

3 1/2 ozs/ 1 stick minus 1 tablespoon of melted butter (I always use salted because that's what I like - if you don't use salted butter add a pinch of salt to the dry ingredients when you sift them) 

2 large eggs beaten 

5 ozs/ heaped 1 cup white flour  

1 1/2 teaspoons spice - your choice of combination - I used 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1 teaspoon of cardomom, you may like nutmeg and allspice, nutmeg and clove, cinnamon and nutmeg - yes I like my nutmeg 

1 teaspoon baking soda/bicarb of soda 

8 oz shredded pumpkin (or squash of your choice)

1 tablespoon apple juice

4oz/ 1 cup sugar - brown works really nicely in this recipe 

METHOD:

1. Whisk the melted butter (cooled) into the eggs with the apple juice. 

2. Sift all the dry ingredients together. 

3. Fold the dry ingredient into the wet until evenly mixed. 

4. Fold the shredded pumpkin into the mix.

5. Gently dollop the batter onto the apples and sticky toffee so as not to disturb the apple pie order of the apples:

6......and smooth your batter nice and gingerly and seal the edges by smoothing the batter right to the edge of the tin - so the sticky toffee won't escape so much:

 7. Bob into the oven for about 45 mins until nice and evenly browned:

8. Leave to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes then gird your loins and flip over onto a pretty plate:

This is the first one I made it was paler and stickier - I think because I used more apples and they were juicier too - maybe I also baked it for less time. This is the second one I made -

...which I decided to cover in some more sugar and broil/grill until the sugar bubbled and not only did it look nicer but it was drier in a good way.

First one stickier, wetter:

 Second one drier and more holding it's shape better - which all goes to prove it's hard to make things the same way twice even with the so called same ingredients because things like the weather, how juicy your fruit is etc can have an effect on the outcome - suffice to say they were both very good and I wouldn't even begin to say which one was better.

I should have gotten a better pic of the cake inside - but I didn't naughty moi - anyway you can see the little pumpkin shreds and the outside gooieness - yum!!

This cake most definitely should be eaten on the day it is made though as the following day it had gotten damp and moist in not a good way so bear that in mind - most of the cakes I make taste better the next day - not this one!

I hope you enjoy baking this cake and let me know if you do and how it comes out.

If you have an interest in either of the background fabrics featured in this post you will find them in my SPOONFLOWER shop - click HERE to bob on along there - thanks!!

HAPPY BAKING - Patricia

Apples, apples everywhere - Apple Nut Turnovers, Apple Cider Syrup and Glace Apple Slices!!

Isn't that Glace apple slice a thing of beauty - I just saw the recipe for it by accident on Pinterest while I was oogling a recipe for something else and I realized I just had to make them - they were surprisingly easy, turned out just beautifully and taste like a slice of toffee apple - YUM. Propping up the glace delight is a delicious Apple and Nut Turnover - equally as good and delicious created from a recipe in Country Harvest by Linda Burgess and Rosamond Richardson - a simply lovely book full of cosy photos and excellently reliable recipes for the Autumn season.

 To make your turnovers you'll need to start with making your pastry first as you'll want to bob it in the fridge for at least an hour before you start baking.

Pate Brisee by Martha

This is good for 4 nice sized turnovers - this recipe doubles well.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/4 cups/5ozs of white flour - I also added 1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground nutmeg to the flour just for a little extra autumn flavour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 stick/4oz butter I always use salted, VERY cold

1/8 to 1/4 cup ice cold water

METHOD:

1. Sift the flour and add the sugar and blend.

2. Grate the butter into the flour.

3. Gently work butter into flour until it resembles coarse meal or swish in a food processor to achieve the same.

4. Add some of the water and test to see if it comes together, if not keep adding water until the dough will squush into a non-sticky ball.

5. Put into the fridge to rest for at least one hour - or as long as you like.

Whilst the dough is chilling you can make the other component parts:

APPLE CIDER SYRUP - make lots of this it is really good on pretty much ANYTHING!

If you use 8fl ounces of apple cider (that would be juice in England not alcoholic cider) all you have to do is gently boil it down until there is only 4 fl ounces left - that's it! When it cools it will go syrupy - if it doesn't, depending on the water content of your juice, then just simmer it a bit more. Allow to cool.

FILLING FOR TURNOVERS - refer to this chart for the type of apples you want to use - I used Braeburns which turned a nice pink and didn't break down in cooking but if you want more filling in your turnover maybe you'll want to chose an apple that turns mushy.

12ozs of apples chopped into bite sized pieces - about 3 medium sized apples

1oz sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon - I'm not a big cinnamon girl but it seemed right in this recipe and this is a small amount

2oz toasted walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans or almonds chopped - I used walnuts.

 1 fl oz/1/8 cup water

1oz butter

4 tablespoons apple cider syrup

1. Cook the apples in the water along with the sugar and cinnamon until mushy if you are using mushy apples or nicely cooked if you are using non mushy, as below:

 2. Fold in the nuts and syrup and allow to cool.

STICKY TOFFEE APPLE SAUCE:

2 1/2oz brown sugar

 1 1/2 oz butter
2 tablespoons cream or half and half 

6 tablespoons apple cider syrup

1. Heat sugar, cream and butter together in a small pan until sugar has dissolved and allow to bubble for a minute or so.

2. Add the apple cider syrup and stir - keep warm but not hot.

GLACE APPLE SLICES - wee hee I love these - found the recipe here.

Here's my interpretation: Set oven at 350F and grease a baking sheet lightly with butter.

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of water

1 small apple sliced fine on a mandolin - I think I did my slices much thinner than in the MyRecipes recipe but they worked out well - also they don't mention it's hard to get a whole apple slice the way it looks in their picture - and if you do get a whole slice you aren't getting too many of them because they'll only come from the middle part of the apple - so don't be disappointed if most of your slices are just circles with no character. MyRecipes also didn't mention that you need to use a non mushy making apple as mentioned above so check your apples are sufficiently sturdy :)

1. Bring water and sugar to a boil.

2. Allow to boil gently for a couple of minutes.

3. Add a few apple slices and stir them around gently - watch them go transparent pretty quickly especially so if your slices are as thin as mine.

4. When they are transparent gingerly move them to the baking tray -

 - I found tongs were the best way to do this - flatten them out as best you can and bob into the oven for about 5 minutes to start - check how they are if they are starting to go golden they are ready - they actually went white again for me which confused me but when I took them out and put them on a cooling rack they went transparent again. You may have to play with this a little to get them right but you can put them in and out of the oven until they go crisp when cold. DO make sure you take them off the baking tray and put on a cooling rack whilst they are still pretty hot though or they'll stick. Don't throw away the apple simple syrup you have now made - there's always something you can do with it!

  Now to assemble your turnovers.

Set your oven to 350F.

You will need one beaten egg yolk.

Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out to a square about 12 x 12" and cut into four even squares:

Bob 2 tablespoons or so of the apple mix onto the square thus:

 Dab some of the beaten yolk along the 2 front edges and fold the pastry in half over the filling to form a triangle - press with a fork along the edges to press the top and bottom pastries together - you don't want any gaps or holes of the filling will ooze out whilst cooking. Now wash the top of the turnovers with more egg yolk and a goodly sprinkling of sugar:

Can you believe how yellow my egg yolk is - it's from Farmetta Farm - best eggs around!

 ...and into the oven with them for about 20 minutes until golden brown and piping hot.

 Allow to cool slightly, cover with the sticky toffee sauce and some of the apple mix if you have any leftover - decorate with a glace apple slice or two and off you go - these are SO GOOD!!!!!

HAPPY BAKING!!

If you make these please feel free to post on my Facebook page - I'd love to hear about it!

Here's an excellent apple usage chart from Pocket Change Gourmet and some more info on apple varieties HERE

Until quite recently I thought all apples were created equal and didn't know you used different varieties for different things - now I know!!