Apple Upside-Down Cake in a Fry Pan

After reading the post on the Ozeri SS Earth Pan, here is a perfect fall recipe for you to try in your new pan.  (BTW these pans make great Christmas Gifts and you can get yours at Amazon.)

This recipe is taken from  Noteatingoutinny.com.

Apple Upside-Down Cake (in a fry pan)(makes one 8-inch, short cake)

1 large apple, peeled, cored and sliced to thin wedges
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

for the cake batter3/4 cup all-purpose or cake flour
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Cream the butter, vanilla and softened sugar. Beat in the egg until mixture is fluffy and lighter in color. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Gradually add to the creamed mixture, alternating with splashes of the milk, until all is incorporated and well-mixed.

Preheat oven to 375F. Toss the peeled and sliced apples in the 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Melt the 4 Tb of not softened butter in an 8-inch fry pan. Once it begins to foam, place down the apples in a fan formation (or just place down however you wish). Don’t stir, and let cook on medium-high heat for 1-2 minutes. Slowly pour the cake batter over the apple mixture, evenly pouring around the edges rather than the center all at once (so as not to disturb the fan pattern). Transfer pan to the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Remove with hot mitts. Place a large serving plate upside-down on top of the fry pan and flip. The cake should come out onto the plate upside-down.

One plump apple is just what you’ll need for the bottom of this cake. Once peeled and sliced, I tossed my apples in sugar and cinnamon raw first. Almost half a stick of butter went down in a roughly 8-inch pan, and when it began to foam, the slices were arranged in a fan.

apples are arranged in a fan

You’re probably wondering what type of pan to use for this now. Definitely oven-safe to at least 400 degrees is key. You could even use a cast-iron pan, popular back in the day for baking cornbread in. But if you have a non-Teflon, PFOA-free fry pan that’s at least one inch deep, the cake will slide right out of it like a frittata in grease.

The process is kind of like making a frittata: cook the apple slices in hot butter, until they’re sizzling with juices and apple pie smells. Then pour the cake batter over them, and don’t touch again. Transfer this all to the oven immediately, to bake through with convection heat. Once a toothpick comes out clean from the center, cake’s done.

No one even knew it was baked in a fry pan.