Amazingly moist and flavorful apple upside down cake with honey! Can be made gluten-free, whole grain and dairy-free.
Today’s upside down apple honey cake isn’t exactly international but it is maybe a little multicultural! I’ve seen a few recipes for Jewish apple cakes and was intrigued. They seem to be traditionally made in a tube pan, which I don’t have, and I just made an apple bundt cake, so I thought I’d go with something smaller.
Jewish apple cakes also don’t usually seem to involve honey, so I added a delicious honey sauce and turned my cake into an apple upside down cake. The original was made with all-purpose flour, but I used a mix of gluten-free flours and made another version with white whole wheat flour.
These whole wheat apple muffins also have honey in them and are a bit easier to make than this apple cake!
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year and dipping apple slices into honey is one of the food customs associated with it (you can read more about that here). I thought it’d be nice to make an apple and honey cake for Rosh Hashanah, but I got the date wrong and thought about keeping this recipe for next year.
Then some lovely people on Instagram informed me that Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people and involves fasting for nearly 26 hours, is this week and that this cake would be great for breaking the fast.
Thanks so much to those people! I was seriously so bummed about having missed Rosh Hashanah by a few days.
This idea I had of making an apple cake every Monday (like this French apple cake or this Swedish apple pie) was a little birdbrained on my part.
Rarely do cakes ever work out on the first or second tries for me. I’m rocking an average of four attempts per cake before nailing the recipe. :D But this apple upside down cake was totally worth it! It absolutely doesn’t taste gluten-free (at least it doesn’t with the mix of flours I used) and is honestly one of the best cakes I’ve ever eaten.
By the way, if you’re gluten-free, be sure to read my post on Is Honey Gluten-free?
I found the cake recipe on Smitten Kitchen but the source is unknown. Several commenters said their mom made the exact same recipe and one commenter thinks it came from The New York Times Heritage Cookbook. Wherever it came from, it’s magical.
Let’s see where I went wrong.
Attempt 1: Delicious but a little too dense. I looked at my calculations again (I only made a fourth of the recipe) and I used 10x (seriously) the amount of tapioca starch I should have. Whoops.
Attempt 2: Perfect! Time for a full-sized cake.
Attempt 3: I wanted to make the cake in a 9″ pan but I only had a springform pan of that size. Who knew that the honey sauce would leak and create a huge mess in the oven? I guess most people? ;) I sure didn’t. I took that cake and flipped it into a 10″ pan. I swirled it all together and it was delicious.
Attempt 4: This is the version you see here. I used a 10″ closed cake pan and I lined just the bottom with a piece of parchment paper. Everything was going well until I checked it after it had cooled for about 20 minutes. Apparently the toothpick test doesn’t work with this cake! It was still not cooked all the way through. So back to the oven it went.
When I flipped it out, the nuts around the edges stuck to the pan. They were really easy to put back on the cake and I don’t think you could tell, but I still recommend just placing a piece of parchment paper in the pan. Not lining just the bottom, but having a full sheet that goes over the bottom and up the sides. That’s how I did the first two and fifth cakes and it worked beautifully! That way nothing will leak and there won’t be any issue with nuts sticking.
Attempt 5:One last time (with peanuts instead of walnuts!) to get the correct baking time and feeling very relieved it’s over with. :)
To my Jewish readers – have an easy fast. To everyone else – you HAVE to make this apple upside down cake! Either that or these apple brownies with caramel frosting. Because they, too, are super delicious. :)
Not really into apples? Try this strawberry rhubarb upside down cake or this easy blueberry upside down cake!
This Gluten-free Pineapple Upside Down Cake from Noshtastic also looks awesome!
Upside Down Apple Honey Cake (gluten-free, whole grain options and dairy-free)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 9 slices
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (160 grams) honey
- 5 tablespoons (70 grams) coconut oil, room temperature1
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 cups (165 grams) chopped roasted walnuts2
- 1 cup + 6 tablespoons gluten-free 1:1 all-purpose mix,3 white whole wheat flour, or all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (113 grams) melted coconut oil
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated or raw sugar
- 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 4 small baking apples (about 630 grams of apples, or 400 grams / 3.25 cups of chopped apples)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons granulated or raw sugar
For the honey sauce:
For the cake:
For the apples:
Directions
- Position the oven rack to the middle position of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) and place a piece of parchment paper over a 10" (25.4cm) cake pan (dark and glass pans aren't recommended). Do not line just the bottom of the pan! Place a full piece of paper over the pan so that the entire thing is lined.
- Mix together the honey, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the walnuts.
- Spread the honey sauce over the bottom of the parchment-lined pan. Place the pan in the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the cake. This makes it easier to spread the cake batter on top.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the melted coconut oil, sugar, orange juice, vanilla and eggs. Set aside.
- Peel, core and cut the apples into small pieces, about 1/4" in size. You can make larger pieces if you like, but it'll make the cake more difficult to cut.
- Place them in a bowl and stir in the cinnamon and sugar.
- Add the dry cake mixture to the wet and stir just until combined.
- Remove the cake pan from the refrigerator and pour half of the cake batter over the honey sauce. It will be a very thin layer. Sprinkle half of the apples (about 1 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons) over the batter. Add the remaining cake batter (again, a very thin layer). It's okay if the apple layer and cake layer blend together a little. Then add the remaining apples. Once it's all done, it won't look like much but it will rise a lot. The reason why I didn't just add the apples to the batter is so that they retain their cinnamon sugar coating. I'd also be worried about the apple pieces interfering with the honey sauce layer.
- Bake for 50 minutes or until very lightly browned. The toothpick test does not work here! Once it's lightly browned, you'll have to dig in just a little with a fork or knife to see if it's really done.
- Let the cake cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before inverting onto the serving plate. The cake will be quite fluffy and therefore a little difficult to get a clean piece when cutting. It'll be easier after about 6-8 hours. After sitting overnight, the cake is a little denser and almost like a coffee cake and much easier to cut.
- Cover and store at room temperature for up to 2 days.
For the honey sauce:
For the cake:
For the apples:
Notes
- I used refined coconut oil, which doesn't have any coconut taste. If you use unrefined coconut oil in this cake, it will likely have some coconut taste to it.
- I chopped mine quite small so that the cake would be easier to cut and toasted them at 350 °F (175 °C) for 5-7 minutes.
- You can use your favorite gluten-free flour mixture that's a 1:1 substitute for regular all-purpose flour. I made my own, which was:
- 129 grams white rice flour
- 47 grams potato starch
- 18 grams tapioca flour / starch
- 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
Adapted from Mom's Apple Cake, which likely came from The New York Times Heritage Cookbook
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123 comments on “Apple Upside Down Cake with Honey (gluten-free, whole grain options and dairy-free)” — Add one!
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I just started going gluten free and stumbled upon your recipe because I just bought tow jars of local honey and I was searching for some bakery I could use it in. I’ve made this twice already and it is SO good! Does not have that grainy texture some gluten free can have. I took it to work and got so many compliments. I used butter instead of cocnut oil in the sauce and we decided it reminds us of baklava! I’m going to call it my baklava cake. :)
Baklava cake! I love that. :) I’m happy to hear that you’ve already made it twice and that your co-workers liked it, too! Thanks a ton for your feedback. :)
I was wondering if I could use a gluten free cake mix instead of the “flour mixture”?
I wouldn’t recommend it as it has added sugar and other ingredients. You could use a 1 to 1 GF mixture that’s a sub for all-purpose flour or the GF mixture I have listed at the end of the recipe. Sorry about that!
This recipe sounds amazing!!!!but I have a nut allergy do u have an idea that would be a good substitute for the walnuts instead?
Thanks! :) Can you do peanuts (since they’re technically legumes?) If so, those are delicious here!
Oh! Sorry for not specifying my allergy is for peanuts and tree nuts. Would coconut work on it?
I imagine it would but I haven’t tried it so I honestly have no idea how much you’d need. Sorry I couldn’t be more of a help! If you try it out, I’d love to hear how it goes. :)
I have the opposite problem – I have a 10″ springform and a 9″ closed… But the 9″ is only an inch tall. Decisions!
Go with the 10″ springform but put a whole piece of parchment paper down in there, leaving an overhang so that you won’t have the issues I did with it leaking. :) I hope you’ll enjoy it!
I made these as cupcakes, the first batch was quite greasy on the bottom from the honey mixture-so the next batch I layered batter first, then apples, walnuts, and batter again…sprinkling cinnamon on top-they look awesome, no sticking issues and will be easy to share…excellent for Rosh Hoshanah-thank you for the recipe!
I’m happy they came out well as cupcakes! Just to be sure, you put the honey mixture in the middle (where you said walnuts)? And how many did it yield? Just in case someone asks about making them as cupcakes. :) Thanks a bunch for the tip!
I stumbled upon your recipe on pinterest just at the right time. Next month is Yom Teruah (Rosh Hashanah) and Yom Kippur, I will give this beauty a try :) One question, can I use Gala apple on this recipe? Or does it require a softer type of apple – sorry, I don’t understand what are baking apples. Thank you.
Gala would be great! There’s some more info about baking apples here if you’re interested. :) I hope you’ll enjoy the cake!
FYI, I used Gala apples and this was WONderful. I got so many compliments.
Good to know! Thanks a bunch for the tip. :)
can i make a nut free version? maybe using shredded coconut?
I haven’t tried it so I’m not sure, but I think that could work. I’d love to hear how it goes if you try it out!
I have it in the oven but didn’t have any parchment paper. 😬 Here goes nothing. Any warnings?
Yikes! I’m pretty sure it’s going to stick to the pan and I don’t think there’s anything that can be done now. I hope I’m wrong, though. :)
It looks wonderful and I’d love to try it, but I’m deathly allergic to cinnamon and just a teensy bit of it would end with me in the ER. Do you have a suggestion for a different spice to use, I can only think of nutmeg, but I’m not sure if that would taste right with the apples.
Cardamom would be nice! I’d probably only use half the amount, though. Hope you’ll enjoy it. :)
Does this cake mature nicely? Could i bake it a couple of days in advance? Thanks!
It does! I’d recommend keeping it in the fridge. Enjoy! :)
I would love to try this recipe, but I wonder if you have the gluten-free flour recipe using cups and tablespoons.
I didn’t include them because the measurements are kind of crazy. 14.75 tablespoons white rice flour, 4.85 tablespoons potato starch, 2.4 tablespoons tapioca flour, 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum. I hope you’ll enjoy it if you try it! :)
Hi there the cake looks amazing! I was just wondering whether the recipe can be adapted for vegans (finding a suitable substitute for the eggs)? I don’t suppose you’ve tried it but let me know if you have a similar vegan cake recipe on hand! xx
Hi Emily! I haven’t tried a vegan version of this recipe and unfortunately don’t have a similar vegan one. I don’t have much experience with chia eggs but I’m guessing they’d add a bit of an odd taste to this cake? Or are they pretty much tasteless? Sorry I don’t have a better solution for you!
Flax eggs or chia eggs ( the chia or ground flax with warm water) do not change the flavor at all. I sub them all the time as I have been egg allergic for 59 years. I do believe that subbing egg whites is more problematic….I also use extra baking soda and vinegar to ensure my baked goods rise. And I am also gluten intolerant…. Making baking, good tasting and good looking an art!
Thanks, Lois! I recently tried chia eggs and liked them very much. I had tried flax eggs in the past and could definitely notice the taste in the final product, though. I just don’t like their taste. So I’m all for chia eggs now. :) Thanks again for your comment!
This looks lovely. I’m allergic to coconut though. Is there anything that can substitute?
Thanks! In the sauce, I’m pretty sure an equal amount of butter would work (but I haven’t tried it so I’m not 100% sure) and in the batter, the same amount of another type of vegetable oil would definitely work. I hope you’ll enjoy it! :)
Hello
Maybe a dumb question but how come using a glass baking pan is not recommended?
It’s not a dumb question! One person tried using a square glass baking pan and the edges burned. If you use glass, you need to make adjustments to the temperature and possibly baking time, but since I haven’t tried it, I can’t really recommend it. The people in this thread recommend lowering the temperature 25 degrees so you could try that if you’d like. :)
Would it work in an 8×8 square? Should I adjust anything?
The area of a 10″ circular pan is 78.5 and the area of an 8″x8″ is 64, so I think that pan may be a little too small and that it may not bake properly. Do you have a 9″x9″? Because that’s almost the same size!
I can use coconut palm sugar. I haven’t experimented with baking with it, but perhaps I will try. Thank you for your quick response!
I love baking with coconut sugar! I almost always use it in anything non-vanilla flavored (like this cake, which is why I didn’t list it as an option!). It should work here, but it’ll have a deeper, slightly caramel-like taste to it. It doesn’t sound all that bad but since I haven’t tried it, I can’t say how it’d be. Let me know if you try it out! :)
I really want to make this cake, it looks and sounds amazing. I have an intolerance to cane sugar. What would you suggest as a substitute instead if using sugar?
Hmm. Can you use any kind of non-liquid sweetener? Using a liquid sweetener would require reworking the recipe a little and since I haven’t tried it, I can’t really give you any advice there. Sorry I’m not more of a help!
This cake was so good that I made it 2 nights in a row! My co-workers and my family all gave it rave reviews! I used your GF flour blend and even the gluten eaters didn’t know that it was gluten free! The instructions were clear and easy to follow. This is definitely a cake I will make again and again! Thank you!
Thank you, Marti! I really appreciate you taking the time to leave a review. :) I love your cassava flour idea that we talked about on Instagram and will definitely try a honey apple treat with that for next year’s Rosh Hashanah. Thanks again!
What a beautiful cake! I am so impressed with your determination to get it just right. Also, the photo of the slice makes me want to reach a fork right into the screen — YUM!
I sure wish I could share. :)
I love a good upside down cake! I can’t believe you made this cake so many times!!
By the way, whenever I use a springform pan, I put a baking sheet below it so that what happened in attempt #3 doesn’t happen :p But I’m glad you perfected it in the end! This looks amazing!!
Haha. That would have been clever! But it still would have leaked all over the pan. From now on, I’m parchment papering the whole thing. :D