Apple Upside Down Cake (cake mix)

Today we are sharing a DELICIOUS Apple Upside Down Cake recipe that starts with a cake mix. You will love the flavor combination of baked apples, apple spice, and brown sugar in this ultra moist recipe. Nobody would guess how simple it is to make.

How to Make Apple Upside Down Cake

You can find the full, printable cake recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!

First, we'll look at the topping of butter, brown sugar, and sliced apples, which needs to be added to the greased & floured bundt pan before adding the cake batter.

• Melt the ½ stick (¼ cup) of butter (we melted ours in the microwave).
• Pour the melted butter into the prepared bundt pan, and sprinkle with 1 cup of light brown sugar.
• We used an apple slicer to slice the apple into sections, and then sliced each section into 3 thinner slices. (Remove the peel). Each slice is approximately ¼ inch thick or so. There's some variation as you can see in the photo below ;0)

• Arrange the thinly sliced apple slices on top of the brown sugar, all the way around the bottom of the bundt or tube pan. The apple slices overlap slightly here and there.

For the Cake Batter

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
• Sift the yellow cake mix into your mixing bowl. Add all of the other ingredients except for the diced apples: instant vanilla pudding, 4 eggs, cup of milk, ½ cup vegetable oil, apple pie spice, and vanilla extract.
• Mix at medium speed for one minute. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix one more minute.
• Fold in one cup of finely diced apples.
• Pour or scoop the batter into the bundt pan, covering the brown sugar and fruit layers.

• Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer or toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Baking times may vary- check your cake for doneness as it approaches the 45 minute mark.
• Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes.

• To turn out the cake, place the pedestal or cake plate on top the the cake pan, and carefully flip it all as one (using dish towels or oven mitts to protect your hands from the heat.)

• Leave the bundt pan upside down for a minute or two to give the the glaze a little more time to drip down. You may still have a bit of brown sugar in your pan- that it okay!

• Serve warm or cool. If not serving right away, it is best to refrigerate and then remove from the refrigerator 2-3 of hours before serving. This will allow time for the cake to soften. So delicious! Serve just as it is or topped with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Recipe FAQs

More Fall Cake Recipes

We have many more fall cake recipes to share with you! We have pumpkin spice cake, apple pound cake, gingerbread cake, our popular carrot cake recipe, and more.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! We hope that you enjoy the recipe. For more cake ideas, make sure to check out our full collection of cake recipes (which includes cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes)!

We also have a great collection of cake decorating tutorials for all sorts of occasions (including fall cake designs)!

Apple Upside Down Cake (Cake Mix)

BY Melissa and Bebe

This moist and decadent Apple Upside Down Cake is a doctored cake mix recipe that has amazing flavor from apples, spices, and brown sugar. It is the perfect recipe for fall!

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 45 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 15

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1 Box Yellow Cake Mix I used Duncan Hines Perfectly Moist 15.25 oz. I like to sift my mixes.
• ▢ 3.4 oz Small Box Instant Vanilla Pudding
• ▢ 1½ teaspoons Apple Pie Spice (3g)
• ▢ 4 eggs room temperature (Place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes if in a hurry.)
• ▢ 1 cup Milk (preferably whole or 2%) (240g)
• ▢ ½ cup Vegetable Oil (we use Canola oil) (108g) (We use Canola Oil)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons Vanilla extract (8g)
• ▢ 1 cup finely diced apples (105g) (We used Granny Smith. Golden Delicious is a good option too.)

For the Brown Sugar Glaze and Topping (Goes into pan first)

• ▢ 1 cup packed light brown sugar (200g)
• ▢ ½ stick unsalted butter, melted (56g)
• ▢ 1-2 apples, peeled and thinly sliced to about ¼ inch thickness. (We only needed one large apple for this part. We used Granny Smith. You need enough to cover the bottom of the bundt/tube pan.)

Instructions

• Grease (with vegetable shortening) and flour a bundt pan. Ours is a 10 inch bundt pan but a smaller one is fine also (but as a general rule of thumb, don't fill your pan more than ⅔ full).

For the Topping (Goes in pan first)

• Melt the ½ stick (¼ cup) of butter (we melted ours in the microwave).
• Pour the melted butter into the prepared bundt pan, and sprinkle with 1 cup of light brown sugar.
• We used an apple slicer to slice the apple into sections, and then sliced each section into 3 thinner slices. (Remove the peel). Each slice was approximately ¼ inch thickness.
• Lay the thinly sliced apple slices on top of the brown sugar, side by side, all the way around the bottom of the bundt or tube pan. One large apple gave us enough slices for this step, but depending on the size of your pan or apple(s), you may need a bit more.

For the Cake Batter

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
• Sift the cake mix into your mixing bowl. Add all of the other ingredients: instant vanilla pudding, 4 eggs, milk, ½ cup vegetable oil, apple spice, and vanilla extract.
• Mix at medium speed for one minute. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix one more minute.
• Fold in one cup of finely diced apples.
• Pour or scoop the batter into the bundt pan, covering the brown sugar and fruit layers.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer or toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Baking times may vary- check your cake for doneness as it approaches the 45 minute mark.
• Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting it onto your cake plate or pedestal. Place the pedestal on top the the cake pan, and carefully flip it all as one (using dish towels or oven mitts to protect your hands from the heat.)
• Leave the bundt pan upside down for a minute or two to give the the glaze a little more time to drip down. You may still have a bit of brown sugar in your pan- that is okay!
• Serve warm or cool. If not serving right away, it is best to refrigerate and then remove from the refrigerator 2-3 of hours before serving.

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