/05

Apple Ginger Upside-down Cake

Source: Classic Jewish Recipes

Adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine, January, 1998

TOPPING: (Prepare before mixing cake)
1 stick pareve margarine
1 cup (packed) brown sugar
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
4 large Granny Smith apples...peeled, quartered, cored, cut into 1/2" thick wedges
3 tablespoons chopped up crystallized ginger *

CAKE:
1 box Duncan Heinz Yellow Cake Mix
3 eggs
Oil
1 cup water
1 tsp powdered ginger
ginger syrup (optional-this is the 'juice' inside ginger in syrup, available in speciality stores)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. "Pam" a large rectangular baking dish (I used a Pyrex)- 9" or larger.

Melt margarine in pot over low heat, add sugar and cook till it bubbles, stirring so as not to burn margarine. Remove from heat; stir in powdered ginger. Pour mixture into baking dish, spreading to cover bottom well. Tightly overlap apples atop sugar mixture. Sprinkle crystallised ginger* over apples.

*Crystallized ginger is available in the Oriental section of grocery store (WITH a hechsher (Kosher certification)

Now for the cake mix:
Prepare as suggested on box, but use only 1 cup water. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. I threw in 1 teaspoon powdered ginger, too, and if you have any ginger syrup add about a teaspoon into cake mix. THIS STEP IS OPTIONAL. Pour cake mix over apples, put into oven, bake for approximately 35 - 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Let cake cool for about 5 minutes, invert very quickly onto long, rectangular tray or dish. The syrupy stuff over apples will seep down the sides of cake. DO NOT cut till cake is completely cool.