This Upside-Down Apple-Spice Cake is an easy apple cake recipe made with fresh chopped apples, toasted walnuts, and a buttery brown sugar sauce for cozy fall flavor. Made with Betty Crocker™ Super Moist™ Spice Cake Mix, this apple spice cake dessert comes together in just 1 hour and is perfect for holidays, potlucks, or anytime you want a simple homemade treat.
Here are the ingredients for making Upside-Down Apple-Spice Cake.
Butter: This melts in the pan and helps create the rich base for the topping. Combined with brown sugar, it forms the buttery sauce that gives this upside-down apple cake its gooey finish.
Brown Sugar: It sweetens the topping and helps make the caramel-like sauce layered with the apples and walnuts.
Walnuts: Toasted walnuts add crunch, nutty flavor, and texture to the topping layer.
Apples: Fresh apples are the star of this apple spice cake recipe. They add fruit flavor, moisture, and that classic upside-down cake topping.
Spice Cake Mix: This is the cake base, bringing the warm spice flavor and making the recipe quick and easy to prepare.
Other Ingredients You’ll Need: Water, vegetable oil, and eggs.
Here are the steps and tips for making this easy apple cake recipe.
Toast the walnuts before using for the best nutty flavor. These are added with the chopped apples to the brown sugar, melted butter mixture in the pan.
Follow the spice cake mix package directions to prepare the batter, and pour it over the apple-walnut topping in the pan.
Check doneness with a toothpick at the low end of the bake time to avoid overbaking. Cool the cake for only 2 minutes to help keep the topping from sticking to the pan. Then, run a knife around the pan edges, flip onto a heatproof serving plate since the topping is hot right out of the oven, and remove the pan.
Here’s the best way to store this easy apple cake recipe to enjoy later.
Store Upside-Down Apple-Spice Cake covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Enjoy the cake straight from the refrigerator, or if you prefer it warm, place individual pieces on a microwave-safe plate and heat on high in 15-second intervals, checking periodically, until just warm.
Heat oven to 350°F. In a 13x9-inch pan, melt butter in the oven. Sprinkle brown sugar and walnuts over melted butter; stir to combine. Sprinkle chopped apples in the pan.
Mix cake as directed on the box for a 13x9-inch pan, using water, oil, and eggs. Pour the batter over the apples and walnuts in the pan.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool on a cooling rack 2 minutes; run a knife around the sides of the pan to loosen the cake. Place a heatproof serving plate upside down on the pan; turn plate and pan over. Remove pan. Serve cake warm.
The cake needs to be turned out of the pan shortly after it's removed from the oven or the fruit will stick to the pan. The pan and its contents will be hot, so be sure to use hot pads when flipping the cake onto the cake plate or a board.
Serve with sweetened whipped cream or an 8-oz container of frozen (thawed) whipped topping (3 cups) if desired. For 3 cups of sweetened whipped cream, in a chilled medium bowl, beat 1 1/2 cups whipping cream and two tablespoons granulated sugar with an electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form.
