Apple Upside-Down Cake

From Cooking Light



Ingredients:
Topping:
Cooking spray
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
3 cups (1/4-inch-thick) slices peeled Rome apples (about 2 large)
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Cake:
5.3 ounces cake flour (about 1 1/3 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons butter, softened
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup 1% low-fat milk
3 large egg whites

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Coat a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray.

2. To prepare topping, combine 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small heavy saucepan over medium-high heat; cook until sugar dissolves, stirring gently as needed to dissolve sugar evenly (about 3 minutes). Continue cooking for 4 minutes or until golden (do not stir). Immediately pour into prepared cake pan, tipping quickly to coat bottom of pan. Arrange apple slices in concentric circles in pan over the warm caramel. Sprinkle with nuts; set aside.

3. To prepare cake, weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; stir with a whisk.

4. Combine 2/3 cup sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks and vanilla to sugar mixture; beat until combined. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix after each addition.

5. Place egg whites in a large, clean bowl. Beat egg whites with mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form using clean, dry beaters. Gently fold egg whites into batter. Spread batter over apples. Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack in pan for 5 minutes. Loosen edges of cake with a knife; invert cake onto a serving plate. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Comments:
This cake is pretty easy to make. My caramel didn't turn out so great - not sure what happened there, but it worked. Kind of. You can see it crystallized and glumped together on the bottom of the pan (which is then the top of the cake.) Altogether, a good use of apples. The cake part is pretty good as well.

And of course it's really good with ice cream and caramel sauce too!

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

From Everyday with Rachael Ray



Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 rome apples (about 1 pound), peeled and shredded
1 1/2 cups chewy caramel candies
1 tablespoon heavy cream

Directions:
1. Arrange a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 350°. Line a cupcake pan with baking liners. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth. Whisk in the oil and vanilla. Stir into the flour mixture until just combined; stir in the apples. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan until almost full. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

3. In a small, microwavable bowl, combine the caramels and cream. Microwave for 1 minute at medium power, then stir; repeat in 30-second intervals until melted and smooth. Let cool. Spread the frosting generously on the cooled cupcakes.

Comments:
I must admit I haven't had one of these. Caramel isn't my thing. But Adam has enjoyed them. They're not hard to make, but make sure to refrigerate them. Otherwise the caramel slides right off the cupcakes onto the bottom of the storage container.

Layers of Love Chocolate Brownies

From the Copps ad in last week's newspaper. It's a Nestle recipe.



Ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Baking Cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut in pieces
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup White Morsels
1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping
3/4 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease 8-inch-square baking pan.

Combine cocoa, flour and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract; mix well. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Reserve 3/4 cup batter. Spread remaining batter into prepared baking pan. Sprinkle pecans and white morsels over batter. Drizzle caramel topping over top. Beat remaining egg and reserved batter in same large bowl until light in color. Stir in semi-sweet morsels. Spread evenly over caramel topping.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into squares.

Comments:
I could not get a decent picture of the individual brownie to save my life. I tried in the kitchen, by the window, in the living room. Adam tried. We failed. So yeah, you get the highly unattractive pan with one missing. Sorry...

Anywho, these are not for me. They have caramel and white chocolate, two things I do not like. But I did lick the knife I used to cut them and wow! they're chocolately. Very rich.

Better Than Sex Cake

From one of my co-workers. It's a lot like this recipe.



Ingredients:
1 box German chocolate cake mix
1 (12 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12.25 oz) jar caramel topping
1 (8 oz) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
4 (2.1oz) Heath bars, coarsely chopped

Directions:
1. Bake cake in a 13 x 9 pan as directed. Cool cake for 5 minutes. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, poke several holes in cake.

2. Drizzle milk evenly over top of cake; let stand until milk has been absorbed into cake. Drizzle with caramel topping. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake. Cover and cool completely.

3. Spread whipped topping over top of cake. Sprinkle with toffee chips. Store covered in refrigerator.

Comments:
One of the ladies at work brought this in last week. I don't particularly like caramel or toffee so I took home a piece for Adam instead. He LOVED it and insisted I get the recipe and make it immediately. So I did. The one thing he said was the wooden spoon makes holes that are too big. Maybe next time I'll use a fork instead. Other than that, a success.

Warm Chocolate and Caramel Cakes

From Delish.com



Ingredients:
Butter, softened
1 jar good-quality caramel sauce
1 1/2 cups sifted cake flour
1/3 cup Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup strong brewed coffee, warm
1/3 cup light olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon aged balsamic vinegar

Directions:
Generously coat six 6-ounce ramekins with softened butter. Chill in the freezer for about 10 minutes, and brush with a second coat of butter. Pour 3 tablespoons caramel sauce into the bottom of each ramekin and transfer to the freezer for 1 hour.

Whisk the cake flour, cocoa, baking soda, sugar, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside. Stir the coffee, oil, vanilla, and vinegar together and whisk into the flour mixture just until smooth.

Fill each ramekin with 1/3 cup of batter. Bake at 400 degrees F until the cake is set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, and the caramel has bubbled up the sides, about 20 minutes.

Comments:
I know, the balsamic vinegar sounds weird, but you don't even taste it so don't worry. These are pretty easy to assemble. I ended up using about 2 tablespoons of butter to grease the ramekins. The rest of the softened stuff got slathered on a couple fresh ears of corn from the local farmers' market. Yum. Anywho, these are good, but rich, so it's mighty convenient that they're individually portioned out. Still totally bad for you though. Don't look at the nutrition facts. You'll wish you hadn't. Also, they do re-heat pretty well in the microwave.