From Anna Bolz

A Note from Anna Bolz:

At first glance, this recipe may look intimidating, but don’t let it scare you off! After all, it’s hard to go wrong with sugar, butter and fruit. Replacing pineapple with apple is a stroke of genius that I can’t take credit for, but I promise this recipe will leave you and your guests ready for seconds.

Caramel apple ingredients

• 2-3 Cortland or Gala apples
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
• 1/2 small lemon, strained juice (save the zest)

Cake Ingredients

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour*
• 1/3 cup brown rice flour*
• 1/4 cup sorghum flour*
• 2 tbsp sweet rice flour*
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 whole egg
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 2/3 cup sparkling cider (dry) or seltzer
• 1/2 small lemon, zest

*substitute 1 1/2 cups all-purpose wheat flour, if desired

Recipe Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325F and select a 6 inch, 1 1/2 quart heavy bottomed saucepan.
2. Peel each apple, then cut into 8 equal wedges along length of core. Use a knife to remove core from each piece. Trim one end of each wedge narrower than other end.
3. Arrange wedges like spokes on a tire. (The narrow end will point towards center of circle.) Check size of apple pattern against width of pot. Trim apples more if necessary.
4. Measure water into saucepan. Carefully sprinkle sugar into water, avoiding sides of pot and insuring that each grain gets wet. Cook sugar-water over medium high heat until it is an even golden brown, swirling pot if necessary.
5. Add butter and vanilla to saucepan and whisk until caramel is smooth. Whisk in lemon juice.
6. Swirl the pot in order to coat sides with caramel 1 1/2 inches up from the bottom, using a spoon if necessary to smear some up the sides. The caramel will only be about 1/2 inch thick, but will keep batter from sticking, allowing it rise freely. Carefully arrange apple wedges in spoke pattern in caramel. Allow caramel to harden while mixing cake.
7. Sift all dry ingredients together into a large bowl. Pour butter, oil, and egg into center of dry ingredients, and stir until batter is homogeneous. It will not be smooth. Add cider in 3 additions, whisking batter until smooth after each addition. Fold in lemon zest.
8. Pour approximately 1 2/3 cups of batter ** over apples and caramel in saucepan. Smooth top of cake with back of a spoon, transfer saucepan to oven, and bake approximately 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake until pan is no longer too hot to handle.
9. Rewarm bottom of saucepan for 15-20 seconds on high heat. Cover cake with a plate or a cake board- preferably one that just fits inside the pot- and carefully flip saucepan over so cake gently drops out onto plate. If caramel is too hot, it may burn your hands or arms, but if it is too cold, apples will stick to bottom of pan.
10. Lightly glaze apple side of cake with same extra virgin olive oil used for batter. Serve warm with fresh apple slices, fried rosemary, and vanilla ice cream, or toasted for breakfast alongside a cup of strong, black coffee, or alongside crème fraîche, sour cream, or yogurt and a hot tea for a mid-afternoon pick-me-up.

**Bake extra batter in small pans or muffin tins with streusel, jam, cheese filling, and/or Nutella swirled into batter.