Caramel Apple Pudding Cake

Caramel Apple Pudding Cake

2 cups thinly sliced, peeled tart cooking apples, such as Granny Smith or Rome Beauty
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup raisins or dried cherries
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup milk
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/2 cup water
1 Tbsp butter or margarine
Vanilla ice cream (optional)

1. Grease a 2-quart square baking dish. Arrange apple slices in the botton of the dish; sprinkle with lemon juice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Top evenly with raisins.
2. In a large bowl combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda. Add milk, the 2 Tbsp melted butter, and vanilla; mix well. Stir in pecans. Spread the batter evenly over the apple mixture.
3. In a small saucepan combine the caramel topping, water, and the 1 Tbsp butter; bring to boiling. Pour mixture over batter in baking dish.
4. Bake in a 350º oven about 35 minutes or until center is set. While warm, spoon cake, apples and caramel mixture from bottom of dish into dessert bowls. If desired, serve with ice cream.

Makes 12 servings.
Apples. Caramel. Ice Cream. Enough said. (It came out of the Better Homes and Garden cookbook.)
The ingredients:


I was making this for our small group at church so I wanted to make more than the 12 servings touted in the recipe. I decided to double the recipe and put it in a 9x13 inch baking dish. I've done this before with an apple crisp and it turned out well so I thought I'd try it again. The only issue with this tactic is that I didn't have quite enough lemon juice (which wouldn't be a problem if I kept bottled lemon juice on hand like my mother always does; live and learn). I needed 6 Tbsp for the doubled recipe and I had just over 4 1/2 Tbsp. I thought I'd chance it anyway.

Peeled apples all ready for cutting and slicing. I don't have anything fancy for coring or slicing other than a knife so it took a few more minutes than absolutely necessary.

The apples, raisins and spices looked almost good enough to bake them alone and eat just that. Mmmm... cinnamon and nutmeg.

The dry powders for the cake batter.

The cake batter all mixed together including the pecans.

The batter went fairly well over the apples. I did have just a little trouble with it wanting to stick to the spoon rather than the apples but persistency paid off in the end.

Anything that uses both butter and caramel topping has to be good. This definitely smelled the part once it started boiling.

Pouring the mixture over the batter was actually easier than with the Brownie Pudding. It seemed to hold up a little better and didn't have the tendency to form a well and dissolve a little where the stream hit the batter.

This definitely looked like something that was best served fresh and warm so I decided to transport the prepared cake to our small group leaders' house for baking. This wouldn't be the greatest idea because of the runniness of the topping but I have this super cool carrier. It protected both my lap and our van while in transit.

The final product: I wish I would have thought to take a picture of my bowl when I served it up with ice cream; I was incredible. The apples were delicious, the cake was moist, and the caramel sauce was gooey and wonderful. Doubling this recipe wasn't that difficult and only resulted in a difference in cooking times (40-45 minutes). This recipe was really all I dreamt it would be. I will definitely be making this many times again.