Adapted from Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes Revised (1931)
I’m on a one-woman mission to bring back an old-fashioned touch to baking: a delicious, sugary, buttery topping called hard sauce. But first, we need something to put it on.
This Apple Upside-Down Cake comes from the 1931 edition of Aunt Sammy’s Radio Recipes—a pre-Depression era treasure made with simple, everyday ingredients.
It’s a tender but sturdy little cake—think coffee cake—that’s not overly sweet. While you can certainly eat it plain, the recipe was really designed to showcase a topping like hard sauce or whipped cream.
Now hard sauce is a classic American accompaniment for simple cakes and steamed puddings with roots in British cooking. The combination of butter and powdered sugar brings desserts to a whole new level, and once you learn how to make it you’ll be tempted to add a dollop to everything!
To make the sauce you simply blend softened butter with powdered sugar and chill until hard before serving. This recipe calls for a pinch of nutmeg to complement the apples and cinnamon – you can add a splash of brandy too, if you like.
Here’s the most important part – you MUST serve this on warm cake so the hard sauce melts right in. The butter and sugar seep into every crevice of the apple cake, creating little pockets of sweet, buttery bliss.
Both recipes are below – they’re a truly heavenly combination!
Apple Upside-Down Cake
Ingredients
- ¼ cup salted butter softened
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup milk
- 2-4 firm-fleshed apples
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ¼ cup sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease the bottom and sides of an 8×8 square baking dish or pan.
- Peel, quarter and slice the apples thin.
- To keep the apples from browning while you prepare the batter, submerge the slices in plain cold water with a paper towel on top, or toss them in a little lemon juice. Set aside in the refrigerator until you’re ready to assemble the cake.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add the beaten egg, mixing well to incorporate.
- Add the vanilla.
- Sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients and milk alternately to the butter mixture, mixing after each addition. Do not overmix.
- Assemble
- Mix together the cinnamon and powdered sugar and set aside.
- Spread the apples in a single overlapping layer on the bottom of the baking dish.
- Sprinkle with the mixture of cinnamon and sugar, and add another layer of apples and the remaining cinnamon and sugar.
- Pour the cake batter over the apples. The batter is rather thick and may need to be smoothed on top with a spatula or knife.
Bake
- Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove cake from the oven and cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes.
Serve
- Loosen the sides of the cake, turn it out carefully, upside down onto your serving plate; the top will be covered with a neat layer of transparent apples.
- Sprinkle the top with a little cinnamon sugar if desired.
- Serve warm with hard sauce or whipped cream.
Notes
Nutmeg Spiced Hard Sauce
Ingredients
- ¼ cup salted butter softened
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cups powdered sugar
- Dash of nutmeg this can be replaced with another spice or omitted
Instructions
- Cream butter until soft.
- Add vanilla and mix until incorporated.
- Add powdered sugar and nutmeg and mix until very well combined.
- You should have a very smooth, loose buttercream.
- Refrigerate in an airtight container until needed.
- Remove from the refrigerator 10 minutes before serving.
- Drop a dollop on the warm apple cake (or other cake or pudding) and serve right away. The hard sauce gently melts into the cake creating a decadent butter sauce.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- Yield: 1 cup
