Yeah, just last week I was lamenting the “last of the Summer peaches”!  With the lovely crisp weather and the lovely Fall displays in all the stores, I decided to embrace Fall.  Actually, I absolutely adore Fall…Wedding Anniversary(23 years!), beautiful foliage, SEC Football, Halloween(I’m currently working on Zoe’s costume~Sock Monkey!), caramel apples, and cool/crisp weather that just makes you want to bake!

Since my husband loves pineapple upside down cake, I decided to trade the pineapples for apples for the perfect seasonal cake.  Think about it, apples, pecans, and buttery caramelized brown sugar with a touch of cinnamon..oh, and cake!

All this good stuff is the topping for the cake…it actually starts at the bottom of the pan.

Add melted butter and vanilla to pan, tilting to coat, before evenly sprinkling with brown sugar and cinnamon.

Arrange apple slices and pecans…

So that you wont disturb your lovely design, spoon cake batter atop apples/pecans.

As soon as you remove it from the oven, run a knife along the sides

Immediately invert onto serving plate…Be very careful, hot caramelized sugar is akin to molten lava!

This on was clingy…Just use a fork or toothpick to move it to the cake…

If you eat the stray apple slice, your cake will look like this 🙁

Apple Upside Down Cake
makes on 10-inch cake

Topping:
2 Granny Smith Apples,(peeled, cored, and cut into 12 wedges each)
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecan halves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Cake Layer:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Stir together melted butter and vanilla extract, pour mixture into cake pan, shifting to evenly cover the bottom of the pan.  In a small bowl, stir the brown sugar together with the cinnamon and sprinkle evenly atop the butter.  Use the back of a large spoon to press the sugar together, making sure that the entire bottom of the pan is coated with brown sugar(no spaces).  Starting at the center, arrange one spiral of  apple slices(about 8) atop the brown sugar layer.  Arrange pecans, end to end, at the bottom of the apples.  Arrange remaining apple slices at the edge, filling in any spaces with pecans.  Set aside until ready to bake.

Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside until ready to use.  In a large bowl cream together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Alternate adding dry ingredients with buttermilk, beating well after each addition.  Stir in vanilla until completely combined.

Carefully spoon all of the cake batter atop prepared mixture in pan.  Use an offset spatula or back of a large spoon to spread batter evenly.  Bake for 40 minutes.  Immediately and carefully(hot sugar burns like heck!) run knife around sides of pan before inverting onto serving plate.  Use a fork or toothpick to place any clinging apple slices back onto the cake.