Traditional Tarte Tatin turned into a lovely cake doused in maple caramel—what’s not to like? Tatin Cake will quickly become one of your favorite fall desserts.
This post contains affiliate links. Full disclosure is at the bottom of the article.
Tarte Tatin is a classic dessert that will never go out of style. There’s something enticing about the simplicity of that century-old tart, an accidental creation in which apples are cooked in caramel, covered with pastry, and then baked. The taste of the rustic tart fresh from the oven is refined and rich, its aroma intoxicating. If you have puff pastry on hand, it’s a simple dessert to put together and one of the most rewarding for the wow effect it produces.
Tarte Tatin is a lovely dessert on its own right, but making homemade puff pastry is a project all on its own. Of course, you can buy ready-made puff pastry, but a quality product can be hard to find—at least, I’m not really happy with what I can easily find locally. So one day I was daydreaming about the tart, feeling lazy about making homemade pastry (which is how I feel 99% of the time), and I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to turn Tarte Tatin into a lovely cake? I’m not the first one to have this lightbulb moment, I’m sure—in fact, this cake could easily be considered a close—but better—cousin of the ‘80s sensation, the upside-down pineapple cake.
This Tatin Cake has a dense crumb that can absorb a lot of caramel and withstand the caramelized apples without flinching. This is all thanks to the use of almond flour, which not only provides structure but also flavor to this spectacular tatin cake. For a change, you could swap in finely ground pecans or walnuts for the almond flour. I suggest grinding the nuts with the flour to get a fine texture without turning the nuts to butter.
I like use granulated maple sugar in this tatin cake because it provides an amazing aroma to the cake—plus, apples and maple are a match made in heaven! If you don’t have or can’t find granulated maple sugar, you could use cane sugar, which has a deeper, more caramely flavor than granulated white sugar.
If you’ve never made caramel before, don’t worry! The caramel you’ll make for this tatin cake doesn’t require the use of a thermometer. It’s as simple to make as boiling a handful of ingredients together. The cake batter is also super quick to pull together, so your hardest task, really, is to peel, slice, and carefully lay out the apples to create a beautiful topping. Not bad to get such an elegant result!
Love maple? Then you need to get your hands on my Maple Desserts & Treats Cookbook! Filled with 25 maple-centric recipes, from timeless classics to modern treats, Maple Desserts & Treats is a downloadable eBook with a collection of irresistible recipes made with nature’s most aromatic sugar. Get it all in a handy, “save it everywhere” PDF format! LEARN MORE
Tell me how you liked it! Leave a comment or take a picture and tag it with @foodnouveau on Instagram.
This site is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for the site to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
If you click on an affiliate link, I may earn advertising or referral fees if you make a purchase through such links, at no extra cost to you. This helps me creating new content for the blog–so thank you! Learn more about advertising on this site by reading my Disclosure Policy.
Author: Marie Asselin
I love cakes with apples in them and this recipe didn’t disappoint! It’s so good and definitely worth repeating! :)
I’ve been making this cake on repeat for weeks! So happy you liked it too, Nart.
Love this classic recipe! That caramel sauce gets me every time and I’ll take apple desserts over pumpkin any day of the year.
You and me both Amy! #teamappleseason
This cake is so beautiful! I love how simple it is but how beautiful the end result is. Can’t wait to use up all those Fall apples!
Apple season is the only thing that makes me excited about the return of fall (and the cooler seasons) every year! 😂 This is definitely of my family’s favorite fall desserts. I hope you’ll love it too!
This Tatin Cake came out fantastic! I loved the flavor, and the presentation was beautiful! Thank you for the tips and tricks. They made my life easier the other day. I am so glad I noticed this in my Pinterest feed! Have a great day!
Thanks Heidy! Happy the recipe worked well for you.
Tatin cake looks so good! I love apple upside-down cake which is perfect to celebrate the fall season!
Yes! I just made this cake again over the weekend. It’s a timeless classic!
Oh my, this looks amazing! I love caramelized apples and upside-down cakes, this is a must-try for me!
I hope you give this cake a try Veronika! You’ll love it for sure!
I was trying to answer your question in my mind but there is absolutely nothing that came into my mind – there is just nothing not to like – this cake is fantastic!
Haha well that’s good to hear! Thanks for putting my question to the test Elaine 😉
Hmm yum! This is making me drool right now! Your Tarte Tatin looks really mouthwatering. This will be perfect for my sons.
It’s such a delicious treat to make the most of apple season! I hope your sons love it as much as my family does.
What a great recipe…do you think I could also make it with peaches or would they be too soft? I have a whole case to use up!
Hey Bernice! Yes, I do think you could make this Tatin Cake with peaches instead. The cake layer is on the thin side and it bakes quickly so the peaches wouldn’t have time to turn to mush–unless they were overripe to begin with 😉 Let me know how it goes if you do try this substitution!
The cake looked beautiful and tasted delicious. Plus, that maple caramel was awesome!
So happy you loved it Marta!