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Apple Upside Down Cake with Toasted Espresso Marshmallow Frosting

Toasted espresso marshmallow frosting tops this luscious apple upside down cake recipe. Layers of thin apple slices are baked into a highly fragranced, rich butter cake. The apples simmer in a decadent brown sugar caramel sauce with hints of espresso, vanilla, and maple. Level up your fall dessert recipes with this amazing cake!

Apple lovers, this indulgent apple upside down cake recipe is for you! Layers of thin apple slices are baked into a highly fragranced, rich butter cake. The apples simmer in a decadent brown sugar caramel sauce with hints of espresso, vanilla, and maple. Intentionally not overly sweet, spices like cinnamon and cardamom round out the flavors.

Toasted espresso marshmallow frosting tops the apple cake, for textures and flavors that come together for the perfect apple dessert.

The flexibility of this upside down apple cake recipe is another thing that you’ll appreciate. Create individual desserts if you like, baking in muffin tins, round baking pans or deep tart pans. Everyone loves the torched espresso marshmallow frosting, but you can trade that for a traditional buttercream, a whisky sauce, ice cream, or unsweetened whipped cream. Part pudding cake, part torte, part traditional cake, it’s the perfect fall dessert recipe, and comes together in minutes.

I think this apple cake recipe is at it’s most flavorful when served warm. But no worries, if you’re not eating it right away, store the cake in the refrigerator. It reheats beautifully without sacrificing any flavor, and also freezes well.

To serve, re-heat individual portions, or the entire cake, in a 350 degree oven for 8-12 minutes. Cover cake with foil before reheating. Once reheated, remove foil and place the cake under the broiler for a few seconds (or use a kitchen torch) to brown the caramel apple topping. Remove from broiler, pipe (or with a spoon) top the cake with espresso marshmallow frosting. Return the cake to the broiler to Brûlée the marshmallow frosting, or use a kitchen food torch on the frosting tops. Fabulously fall!

If you’d like more of a pudding cake experience, warm it in the microwave, and serve with chilled ice cream or other toppings that you love. Or layer thin slices in a parfait…make it your own!

And don’t be intimidated by the Toasted Espresso Marshmallow Frosting. It’s truly a breeze to make with my no fail divinity frosting recipe, recipe link included in directions. You can store the frosting in the freezer and use when you need it!

Enjoy!

xxxooo

Apple Upside Down Cake with Toasted Espresso Marshmallow Frosting

What'll You Need

INGREDIENTS for APPLE CAKE:

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter
1 cup granulated (white) sugar
¼ cup dark or light brown sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 ¼ cups (9 ounces) King Arthur Organic Unbleached Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper (optional)
½ teaspoon flaky sea salt, such as Maldon Sea Salt Flakes
1 cup heavy cream (or rich dairy substitute like Planet Oat Extra Creamy Oat Milk)
½ cup milk or water
2 teaspoons Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste
1 teaspoon Cook’s Pure Maple Extract
½ teaspoon Watkin’s Coffee Extract
4 large apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced. Granny Smith, Pink Lady, and Honeycrisp are perfect choices. I highly recommend this APPLE PEELER
Jo Chef Kitchen Torch
8″x14″ cake sheet pan (or pan of your choosing)

INGREDIENTS for CARAMEL BASE:

1 cup unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup dark or light brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
½ teaspoon coffee extract
½ teaspoon salt

INGREDIENTS for Toasted Espresso Marshmallow Frosting

Divinity Frosting Recipe
2 teaspoons coffee extract
1 teaspoon maple extract
2-3 teaspoons King Arthur Espresso Powder

Prepare the Apple Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease baking pan and set aside.
Peel and core apples, cut into thin slices and set aside. Don’t worry about the apples turning brown, you will be using them soon.
In a large mixing bowl, using a stand or electric mixer with the beater attachment, beat together the softened butter and sugars over medium speed.
Add the room temperature eggs, one at a time, and beat until batter is smooth.
In a separate bowl, fork sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, and white pepper.
Add the flour mixture into the batter, alternately with the cream and water. Beat just until smooth. Add extracts. Batter will be thick.

Make the caramel base:

In a separate small bowl, stir together the melted butter, cinnamon, sugars, extracts and salt.

Assemble the Apple Upside Down Cake:

In a prepared pan, pour the caramel into the bottom of the pan.
Begin layering the apple slices over the caramel. You should have 3 layers of apple.
Spread the batter evenly over the top of the apples.
Bake the cake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until top is well browned. Adjust baking time for pan used.

Prepared Upside Down Apple Cake before baking.

While cake is baking, prepare the Espresso Marshmallow Frosting:

Prepare DIVINITY FROSTING RECIPE. Add the coffee and maple extracts and espresso powder, blending until smooth. Store the frosting in the freezer while the cake bakes.

Assemble the Apple Upside Down Cake:

Once cake is well browned, remove from the oven and let cool slightly on a wire rack.
While slightly warm, invert the cake onto a serving platter.

Baked Apple Cake — Inverted Apple Upside Down Cake

Frost the Apple Upside Down Cake:

Remove the frosting from the freezer.
Fill a pastry bag with the frosting and pipe the top of the cake (or individual pieces) with Espresso Marshmallow Frosting. Alternately, you can simply spread the cake tops with the marshmallow frosting.
Brown marshmallow tops under a broiler or with a hand kitchen torch.