Apple slices are drenched in vegan caramel sauce and layered on top of a fluffy spiced cake, giving you this impressive Apple Upside Down Cake. It’s a gooey, comforting, and irresistible dessert that’s perfect for fall!
Looking for more vegan fall cake recipes? You’ll love my Vegan Pumpkin Cake Bars, Vegan Apple Cake, Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake, and Pumpkin Coffee Cake as well.
This is no ordinary vegan apple cake – Apple Upside Down Cake is so much more!
Buttery soft caramelized apple slices are layered on top of a comforting spice cake in this must-make fall dessert. The entire cake is assembled in the pan upside down in this order:
- Caramel
- Apples
- Cake
From there, it’s baked, flipped right side up, and ready to be enjoyed! Serve each slice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or lots of vegan whipped cream on top and you’ll instantly be hooked.
Why I can’t get enough of this easy apple upside down cake
- Caramel + apples = perfection – Gooey, caramel-coated apples are layered on top of a fluffy spice cake that’s as warming as my Vegan Apple Muffins. Every bite is pure perfection!
- Comforting flavors – Vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg in the caramel sauce and cake make this the ultimate comforting fall dessert.
- Impressive, yet foolproof – Preparing a vegan upside down apple cake is foolproof. Just layer, bake, flip, and enjoy!
How to make an apple upside down cake
Start the apple topping by heating the vegan butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Whisk until the butter has melted, then take the pan off the heat and stir in the cinnamon and vanilla.
To make a salted caramel apple upside down cake, stir in 1 teaspoon of salt when you add the cinnamon/vanilla.
Pour the caramel sauce into the bottom of the prepared cake pan. Arrange the apple slices on top of the sauce (the more, the merrier!).
Next, make the cake by whisking the flour, sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the melted vegan butter, applesauce, soy milk, and vanilla extract until just combined.
Pour the cake batter over the apples in the pan.
Bake the vegan upside down cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Set the cake aside to cool for 5 minutes, then invert it onto a serving dish. Slice and serve with vegan vanilla ice cream or vegan whipped cream. Enjoy!
Frequently asked questions
Yes! Just use quality gluten free all purpose flour in the cake batter.
Yes, you can use my homemade caramel sauce or salted caramel if you already have a batch on hand. Store-bought vegan caramel should work, too.
It’s also a good idea to gently heat the jarred caramel in a saucepan first because this will give it a more pourable consistency and help it evenly coat the apples.
Yes, you can use a mix of sliced apples and pears instead or swap the apples for another kind of fruit you like. You might want to change or omit the warm spices from the caramel and cake so the flavors don’t clash with the fruit you choose.
Pineapple upside down cake is always popular, as is rhubarb, strawberries, bananas, cherries, apricots, figs, and many other fruits.
The leftover upside down cake can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. The whole cake or individual slices can also be frozen for up to 2 months.
Apple Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
Apple topping
- 1/2 cup vegan butter
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 medium apples, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
Cake
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup melted vegan butter or oil
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/4 cup unsweetened soy milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat oven and grease pan
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and butter the sides of a 9 inch cake pan. You don't need to butter the bottom. Set aside.
Prepare the apple topping
- In a small saucepan, add the vegan butter and brown sugar. Turn the heat to medium and whisk occasionally until the butter has melted. Cook for about 1 minute, whisking constantly.
- Remove from heat and whisk in the cinnamon and vanilla.
- Pour the sauce into the bottom of the prepared pan. Arrange the apple slices on top of the sauce.
Make the cake
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
- Pour in the melted vegan butter, applesauce, soy milk and vanilla. Stir until just combined.
- Pour the cake batter over the apples in the pan.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Let cool for 5 minutes then invert onto a serving dish.
- Serve with dairy free vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, if desired. Store leftover cake in the refrigerator for up to 3 days in a covered container.
Notes
-
Gluten free? Use gluten free all purpose flour.
- You can use other fruit, such as pear slices if desired.
Would it be ok to use a spring form if I do not have a cake pan it is there a possibility it will leak?
I have made your chocolate cake and blueberry cake and they are both delicious and a hit with my family
Thank you
It will probably leak a bit, so I would wrap the bottom of the pan in a few layers of foil. Other than that, it should work fine. Thanks and enjoy!
Despite my many missteps, this cake came out extremely tasty. Apples, sugar and cinnamon, how can you go wrong, right? I wanted to use a skillet, so I did an 9″ skillet, but when I got to the cake part, I realized it was never all going to fit, so I did half the cake batter, instead of the whole recipe. Glad I did, because as it baked it barely all stayed in the pan. I used sour cream because I didn’t have applesauce, and the cake batter was really glumpy, more like dough, so I added some extra sour cream and oil. Got it in the pan, smoothed it out as best I could baked it for 40 minutes. The caramel was a lot, and enveloped everything. Wish I had done halves on the whole recipe. The cake part clearly came out wrong, but it’s still delicious! I’ve already had two pieces. I would not serve it to company, but it will certainly get eaten around here.
Shouldn’t the recipe add xanthum gum because of gluten free flour
I’ve made this several times and it’s great. Although I do it as non-vegan, using 2 eggs instead of the apple sauce and yogurt instead of the milk (acid reacts more with the leavening in the baking powder. For vegan, you could add a 1 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice to simulate buttermilk). I also bump the baking powder to 2 teaspoons and add 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder. The acid in the yogurt reacts to give more lift and I think makes this cake less dense. Also, 1/2 cup butter is a lot for the topping. I usually do 6 tablespoons. I think this cake may be a vegan version of Sally’s because all the measurements are the same? I noticed that she also reduced the topping to 6 tablespoons butter.
Made this and brought it to a dinner with friends and everyone loved it! It comes together very easily and is delicious. I made it with vegan butter in the cake batter and it was perfect. Thanks for the recipe!
You are welcome, Anna! I’m thrilled that the cake was a hit! Thank you for sharing your Stella review!
Another amazing recipe! I want to make it again for Christmas Eve, but trying to work ahead. If I’m freezing the whole cake, should I freeze it in the pan or dump it out and freeze it on a platter covered well?
This might not be the best cake to freeze, with the apple topping. But if you want to try it, I would invert it on a platter/plate, cool completely, then freeze (wrapped/covered well). I hope you enjoy it!
Oh ok…I only thought about freezing it because you note “The whole cake or individual slices can also be frozen for up to 2 months.”
You can freeze it if needed, especially if you have leftover slices, but if I was trying to impress and serve the best version of the cake, I wouldn’t freeze it before serving.
Absolutely delicious! Have made it twice now this fall. My family can’t get enough of it. I also made it GF – substituted King Arthur Gluten Free 1:1 Measure for Measure flour – and it turned out perfectly. So easy and so beautiful!
So easy and turned out perfectly! The flavor of cake is so nice and it was moist too. It came right out of the pan without any issues and really looked pretty. I’ve been intimidated by upside down cakes and this was my first one! Thank you!
You are welcome, Nicole! I’m thrilled the cake turned out wonderful for you! I’m so glad you tried the cake! Thanks for your glowing review and feedback! Wishing you happy cooking!
Is this done in a spring form pan or is that not recommended?
It looks delish and I can’t wait to try it!
Hi Lori. I recommend just baking this in a regular cake pan, not a springform pan. Enjoy!
Hi Nora,
I just made this and when inverting the cake it was very difficult. I eventually got it out of the tin but does not look good. Did I miss something? I only used 3/4 of an apple. Should I have doubled up on the apple or maybe my slices were not thick enough?
Did you butter the sides of the pan well? 3/4 of an apple is not enough; the recipe calls for 2 apples, so that is probably a lot of the problem. Did you make the butter apple topping and put it in the bottom of the pan as directed? This should make it invert quite easily. Hopefully I can help!
I have made this several times, thank you
However, my caramel is not thick like yours, the apples float around in it and it spills up around the cake mix. Any advice please, should I let it cool?
Hmmm, the “caramel” isn’t super thick and you do have to be careful when you invert the cake onto a serving dish. Perhaps try letting the cake cool in the pan a bit longer, and then just invert it quickly but carefully. As it cools, even after inverting, the caramel should thick more. I hope this helps!
Thank you for an easy and delicious recipe!! My kiddos and I enjoyed it SO much!
Oh… my… god. I had some apples I needed to use up and decided to make this since it had so many 5-star ratings. IT IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!
Hi Finnley. This is also one of my absolute favorites! I’m so glad that you tried to cake and loved it! Thanks for sharing your glowing review!
Love it.
Thank you for your terrific review, and for loving my recipe!
Can I use an 8-inch cake pan? By the way, your recipes are great; especially your tres leches.
Thanks Myra. I’m glad you are enjoying my recipes! I think an 8″ pan could work. I recommend placing a cookie sheet underneath your 8 inch pan in case the caramel bubbles over during baking. Enjoy!
Hi NORA , awesome recipe. Turned out great and I didn’t change a thing .I ‘m. not vegan but I loved it . The cake by its self is awesome the caramel sauce and apples are a bonus . I’m making it for a vegan friend and she is gonna love it . Thank you for a great recipe.🤗👍🏻
You are welcome, Bobbie! How awesome you are making this cake for a friend! I’m thrilled that you loved it yourself! Thanks for taking time to share your wonderful feedback! Happy baking!
Dear Nora,
I tried your Apple Upside Down Cake recipe over the weekend because we had a family event. We celebrated one of my little nephew’s birthday. He got a ‘normal’ cake from a bakery, but I wanted to bake something for those of us on special diets.
I made the caramel from margarine and coconut sugar. It needed a bit more time to get thick enough than regular caramel.
I added 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 all purpose flour to the cake. I replaced both type of sugar with coconut sugar, and instead of nutmeg I added a little more desiccated coconut than you suggested. I chose oil not vegan butter.
I baked it in a bundt pan so it was ready in 30 minutes.
Of course, the whole cake was darker than yours because of the coconut sugar, but who cares?
The whole family loved it, it sold out hot, they asked for the recipe.
Those who could try both cakes all agreed mine was better. What else we need? 🙂
I can’t wait to try another of your cake recipes!
I made this exactly as written but I didn’t have apple sauce so I used 2 bobs egg replacements instead. The toothpick came out clean at 35 mins so I pulled it out, cooled it for 5 mins and then flipped it. Most of the apples and sauce remained in the pan :(. I thought maybe it wasn’t cooked long enough so I stuck it back in the pan and in for another 10 mins, cooled again for 5 and same thing. Everything sticking to the bottom of the pan. Do you have any ideas on what happened? It still tastes delicious but looked as if it had been run over by a truck a couple times. 😆
I don’t think the egg replacement would have caused this problem. What sort of pan did you use? I wonder if it’s quite prone to sticking for some reason. Perhaps try a new pan that is more nonstick. Though I haven’t found I need to grease the pan due to using all that vegan butter for the apple topping.
Hello, can I use other plant based milk, like rice milk for example?
Yes, you can use any milk you like really.
What a fantastic recipe! Easy to make and a crowd favorite. The cake is moist and flavorful and complements w the apples and caramel superbly. *chef’s kiss* love this recipe ❤️
This was a fantastic cake. Made this for my family during Thanksgiving week. Did not have apple sauce so substituted canned pumpkin puree and it came out great. Phenomenal – thank you for this great recipe!
You bet, Riya! I’m so glad everyone loved the cake! I appreciate your awesome review and feedback! Thank you for taking time to share! Happy Cooking!
Do you recommend a particular type of apples for this?
Any apple works, but I do love honey crisp or another sweet and crisp apple.
Hi Nora! I have this in the oven, but before I forget I wanted to quick point out that when I switched to “metric” to view the recipe, the 1/2 cup of vegan butter showed 1/4 cup amount, 56g, instead of 112g as expected.
Cannot wait to try!
Oh no! I’ll go fix that now, sorry about that. I hope you enjoy it!