Apple Pumpkin Upside Down Cake

Recipe by Trish Aser of Brown Hound Downtown, shared by My Saratoga Kitchen Table, and originally printed for Edible Capital District
Yield: 1 cake

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market
● ⅔ packed brown sugar
● ½ cup butter*
● 2 Tablespoons apple cider*
● 1 teaspoon molasses
● 6 or more apples*
● 2 cups all purpose flour
● 2 teaspoons baking soda
● 2 teaspoons baking powder
● 1¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
● ¾ teaspoons ground ginger or 3 tsp fresh grated ginger*
● ½ teaspoon salt
● 1 cup sugar
● ½ cup melted butter*
● 2 large eggs*
● ½ cup molasses
● ½ cup pumpkin* puree
● ½ cup boiling water

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 10 inch round cake pan.
2. Combine the brown sugar, butter, apple cider, and molasses in a saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat, whisking until sugar dissolves and syrup is smooth. Boil 1 minute. Pour evenly into prepared pan.
3. Core, peel, and cut apples into ½ inch slices and arrange in caramel in a decorative pattern.
4. Whisk dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and sugar) together in a medium mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients (melted butter, eggs, molasses, pumpkin and water) until smooth. Add dry ingredients to wet and mix until just blended. Do not over mix.
5. Dollop batter over patterned apples so as not to disturb your design and smooth batter to cover to the edges.
6. Place cake pan on a cookie sheet to catch spills and bake about 35 to 40 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes.
7. Place serving platter face down over cake pan and flip to unmold the cake. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Notes:
The original recipe calls for 2 to 3 apples. You may need as much or more than 6 apples for cover top of cake.
The original recipe has the baking time 25 to 30 minutes. You may need more, as much as 40 minutes.