Passing It Down

My mother-in-law cooks traditional South Indian fare. My mother cooks traditional Upper Midwestern fare. South Indian cookery is based on rice, lentils, vegetables, and spices. Upper Midwestern cookery, from what I can tell, is based on a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup. South Indian food is delicious. I can not tell a lie—food made from a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup is also delicious. My mom's cheesy potatoes and green bean casserole are standard holiday fare, and both, I believe, contain a can of the famous condensed soup.

I can't eat this food more than once a year (or I would be substantially heavier than I am now), but I do have a cake recipe from a cookbook my mom gave me years ago that I can eat several times a year. It comes from the "Taste of Home" series (and by "taste of home," they mean the taste of home if you grew up in circumstances similar to mine). My tastes have expanded widely from the first tastes of my childhood, and I don't often revisit them, but when I do, it's almost always dessert. I will eat homey dessert with any type of food, and I feel much better adding ungodly quantities of butter rather than a can of condensed soup, with modified food starch, MSG, and all that. (Though I do remember reading a recipe somewhere for a chocolate cake that called for a can of condensed cream of tomato soup. Scary. But who knows, maybe it's delicious.)

The other issue that separates my family from the traditions of my elders is our predominant vegetarianism. My husband was brought up vegetarian, so there is no separation from his side. But I was brought up believing that for any meal to be complete, there should be a big hunk of meat somewhere on the plate, or at least mixed in little bits into the casserole dish. That makes it hard for my mom to pass on tradition, when for the most part we can't eat it. And that also ratchets up the importance of sweets and dessert. There's no meat in pie (well, unless you use lard for the crust), just lots of butter and sugar. I'm not going to stop eating that.

I first served this cake as a dessert to follow a grand South Indian feast for the man who is now my husband. I made dahi vadai (fried lentil dumplings in a yogurt sauce) for the first time. The vadai were uncooked in the middle, though still fairly tasty. However, the cake rocked his world. And it was a lot easier to make than the vadai. At least, it was for me. My mom did teach me how to bake, though most of it was through osmosis.

It's just a simple upside down cake, with gingerbread for the cake part, and apples on the "upside down" part. I like cake gingerbread more than gingerbread cookies, because cookies often end up too crispy, and I like my baked goods soft, moist, and warm, especially gingerbread. The apples end up tender and slightly carmelized on top, when the cake is flipped out of the pan. Serve it with a dollop of lightly sweetened whipped cream, and you will have perfection. The recipe makes a small cake, so you would do well to make two, because you could easily polish this thing off in no time, unless you are not like me and actually have willpower.

Upside Down Apple Gingerbread (adapted from Taste of Home)

Ingredients
For the apple part:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 large apples, peeled and sliced (I like tart apples like Granny Smith the best, but any apple good for baking will do.)

For the gingerbread part:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup hot black tea


For the apple part, pour the 1/4 cup butter into a 9-inch square baking pan, and evenly distribute it over the bottom of the pan. (Pyrex works well for me.) Sprinkle 1/3 cup brown sugar over the butter. Lay down the apple slices in an attractive pattern in a single layer over the sugar. Set the pan aside.

For the gingerbread, cream the butter and brown and white sugars together in a large mixing bowl. The sugars should be thoroughly incorporated into the butter, and beaten so that the mixture is fluffy. Add the egg and beat, then beat in the molasses. In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients, then add them to the sugar mixture alternately with the hot tea, beating well after each addition.

Pour this batter over the apples, and make sure to level the top (which will become the bottom after the cake is done). Bake at 350° on the center rack of your oven for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool the cake for 10 minutes, then flip it onto a serving plate. The best way to do this is to first loosen the sides of the cake away from the cake pan with a butter knife. Then place the plate upside down over the top of the cake pan. Then, holding both plate and cake pan tightly together, quickly flip the whole thing over so that the plate is now on the bottom. The cake should slide right out onto the plate, and the apples should now be on top. If a few apples get left behind in the cake pan, just pick them out and put them back on the cake.