When Rockford was a wee lad, anything that met with his approval earned the title “Apple Juice.” He carried around his apple juice blankie, and he snuggled with his apple juice mommy. His passion wasn’t reserved just for juice, though. Rockford has always loved all things apple.

For the last several years, Rockford has been working to perfect his apple cake recipe. Most of his efforts were tasty, but he never produced the same cake twice. Which made it tough to call it his “signature” dessert.

Today he announced that it was time to make another apple cake. And this time? We wrote down what went in to it. And I’m so glad we did. There was some debate as to whether it’s a cake or a pudding, but my, is this a tasty thing. It does have certain similarities to persimmon pudding in terms of consistency, but I’m calling it a cake anyway.

Rockford’s Caramel Apple Upside-Down Cake

2 large apples, peeled and sliced thin
2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, separated
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup chilled applesauce
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together 1 stick of butter and half a cup of brown sugar. Spread over bottom of 8-inch round cake pan. Arrange apple slices in circles on top of the sugar mixture. Set aside.

Cream together remaining stick of butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cup white sugar. Add chilled applesauce, stirring until combined. Mix in flour, baking soda, cinnamon and vanilla. Dollop onto apples and spread evenly, taking care not to move the apples too much. (It’s thick batter; go easy on yourself it the apples move.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Allow cake to cool on a rack for five minutes or so, then flip it out onto a cake plate. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream*. This is also delicious eaten straight from the cake plate with a fork around 1am. Or so I’d imagine.

*I tried to make a chai-spiced whipped cream, but it didn’t work all that well. Next time, I’ll do the chai infusion far enough in advance to let the cream chill thoroughly before trying to whip it.