Caramel Upside-Down Quince Cake

5 from 33 votes

Delicious Upside-Down Quince Cake drizzled in caramel sauce.

Prep Time30

Cook Time1

Total Time1 30

Course: Dessert, sweets

Cuisine: American

Servings: pieces

Calories: 386kcal

Preheat oven to 350° and grease a 9” springform pan with a pat of butter. Set pan aside.
Wash quince and slice in quarters. Remove the seeds and middle section then slice each quarter into 5 to 6 slices.
Place sliced quince in a small pot and cover with approximately 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil then simmer, covered, for approximately 15 minutes or until the quince is tender, then drain.
While the quince is simmering, add brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and salt to a small saucepan. Cook for approximately 3 minutes. Add half-N-half and rum and cook for a few more minutes until deeper in color and thickened.
Pour half to ¾ of the caramel sauce into the prepared pan and leave the rest for drizzling over the cake before serving. Arrange cooked quince slices over the caramel.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves. In another bowl, whisk eggs then add oil, milk, applesauce, and rum. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, beating until just combined.

Pour the batter over the quince and bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, approximately one hour.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes then invert onto a larger dish. Allow to cool.
When you're ready to serve the cake, drizzle with the remaining reheated caramel sauce.

Make sure to wrap the bottom of the springform pan with foil to prevent the caramel from leaking.
Adding a foil-lined pan under the quince cake is also a great idea for easy cleanup.
If you don't love cinnamon, replace some of the cinnamon with a variety of spices including cardamom, ginger, and nutmeg.
You may replace the rum in the caramel sauce with a teaspoon of vanilla.
Besides pineapple rum, you can use spiced or plain rum. Moreover, the rum in the quince cake can be left out and replaced with orange juice.
If you are not in a hurry, cook the quince in simple syrup so that the color transforms into a beautiful shade of pink or even red, if cooked long enough.