Salted caramel and apple upside-down cake

Ingredients:

• 6-8 Granny Smith apples, cored and quartered 
• ⅓ cup (80ml) butter
• ½ cup (125g) brown sugar
• ¼ cup (60ml) cream
• ½ tsp (3ml) salt 
• 1 vanilla pod, cut open down the middle (optional)

Cake batter:

• ⅘ cup (200g) butter, at room temperature
• ⅘ cup (200g) sugar 
• 3 eggs
• ½ Tbsp (8ml) vanilla essence
• 1 ⅕ cups (200g) self-raising flour, sifted

Salted caramel sauce:

• 1 cup (250g) sugar
• ½ tsp (3ml) salt 
• ¼ cup (60ml) water 
• ½ cup (125ml) butter 
• ½ cup (125ml) cream

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Grease and line a 24cm cake tin with baking paper.
3. Place apples in cake tin, laying side by side to create a fanned, circular pattern. 
4. Heat butter in a saucepan. Add sugar, cream, salt and vanilla pod. 
5. Stir to dissolve sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook until sauce turns a caramel colour. 
6. Remove vanilla pod and pour caramel over apples. 
7. For the batter, beat butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
8. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating well, and add vanilla essence.
9. Fold in flour.
10. Spoon batter on top of caramel.
11. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool.
12. For the salted caramel sauce, heat sugar, salt and water and stir until sugar has dissolved.
13. Bring to a simmer and cook until sauce turns a caramel colour. Immediately add butter and cream and stir. Cool.
14. Serve cake drizzled with salted caramel sauce.

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