My dear, sweet neighbor was at it again! This time she brought me more of that wonderful Salted Caramel Black Tea, along with some Granny Smith Apples and a Gingerbread Cake Mix! How fun, right?!! 😀

So my mind instantly put the items together and I thought…how about an upside-down apple-gingerbread cake?!

THAT sounded like a master plan to me! 😉

So I started pulling out all of the goodies that I might need to go into this next little project!

I wanted to do as before, just like I did for the Salted Caramel Apple Spice Tea Cakes with Salted Caramel Frosting, and start by replacing the water called for in the mix, with a tea concentrate sweetened with dark brown sugar! 😉

The cake mix said that you could use either an 8×8 or 9×9 square baking pan, but I have an old round pan that’s 10″ in diameter that I LOVE to use for cakes like this. It’s deep, too, and really holds quite a bit. So that’s what I used.

It’s ancient, and the bottom of the pan doesn’t look very pretty anymore, so I always like to use parchment on the bottom, even thought there’s nothing actually wrong with the pan (and it’s always, of course, perfectly clean).

Just spray whatever pan you’re using with butter-flavored no-stick spray, place your paper down, and smooth out really well getting rid of any and all bubbles possible. (You don’t want all of your yummy stuff to leak underneath! 😉 )

Next we’re just going to do our basic upside-down base of melted butter…..

…..and dark brown sugar. I placed a maraschino cherry in the middle….

…..then started layering my sliced apples!

It took just two layers, overlapping each other and then each layer halfway, to cover the whole pan.

The batter is super quick to mix up, so there was no need for any lemon juice on the apples. Just mix it up quickly in a bowl with a whisk, and pour over evenly.

Then pop it into the oven and bake! 😀

Don’t leave it in the pan long. I think I turned mine out after just 2 or 3 minutes was all.

Then peel back the parchment paper carefully….and WALAH!!! 😀

Isn’t it pretty? 😀

I then finished it with a nice drizzle of warmed, homemade caramel sauce, and sprinkled the slices with a little kosher salt when serving . You can use store-bought caramel topping if you like, but mine only takes 5 minutes to make. 😉

I then served this still-warm cake with a simple swirl of whipped cream on top!

Simple. Delicious. And such a nostalgic look and taste!

VERY easy to make and came out like a dream! So if you’re looking for a nice dessert to serve to your family, friends or guests, that takes minimal ingredients and is easy to make, you’ll want to save and print this one out!

It was really wonderful! A little taste of autumn in every bite! 😉 Enjoy! 😀

Easy 5-Minute Homemade Caramel Sauce recipe here.

Yield: 6 - 8 servings

Salted Caramel Apple Upside-Down Gingerbread Tea Cake

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Ingredients

For Tea Concentrate:

• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup apple juice
• 5 Salted Caramel Black Tea bags (I used Bigelow)

Bottom Layer:

• 6 Tbl. butter, melted
• 2/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 maraschino cherry half, (stem removed)
• 3 large Granny Smith apples, peeled or unpeeled, thinly sliced into 1/8" slices

Cake Layer:

• 1 (4.5 oz.) box Gingerbread Mix, (I used Betty Crocker)
• 1 1/4 cups chilled tea concentrate (*ingredients above)
• 1 extra-large egg
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Topping:

• caramel sauce, homemade or store-bought, warmed
• kosher salt
• whipped cream, Cool Whip or Redi Whip

Instructions

Make Tea Concentrate:

Heat water and apple juice to boiling in microwave, remove, add tea bags, cover and steep for 25 minutes. Remove tea bags squeezing out excess water from bags using back of spoon, stir in dark brown sugar until dissolved, let cool down, then chill.

For Bottom Layer:

Spray pan with non-stick spray. Place a parchment paper round onto bottom well. Melt butter, pour into pan, and swirl to cover bottom evenly. Set aside.

In medium bowl, mix together the dark brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over butter.

Place cherry half in center. Spiral apple slices, overlapping around cherry. Then do a second layer of apples laying them halfway over first layer of apples and going to outer edge to cover surface.

For Cake:

In large mixing bowl, whisk cake mix, tea concentrate, 1 egg and cinnamon until well mixed.

Pour cake batter over apples, level, pop into preheated oven, and bake for about 42 minutes or until cake is done.

Let rest 2-3 minutes, place a cake platter or plate on top of pan, flip over releasing cake onto plate.

Carefully peel off parchment paper not disturbing apples and cherry.

Let cool a little until warm.

Heat caramel sauce, drizzle over cake. (As much or little as you like.) Sprinkle top with kosher salt.

Slice and serve topped with whipped cream.

Notes

*I used a very old, antique 10" round deep-dish pan for this, but you can easily use a 9x9 pan if you don't have one this size.