Upside Down Apple, Honey & Tahini Cake with Sticky Honey Caramel
September 15, 2025

Upside Down Apple, Honey & Tahini Cake with Sticky Honey Caramel

Home Recipes Upside Down Apple, Honey & Tahini Cake with Sticky Honey Caramel

This cake recipe comes from our new cookbook Sesame - but this time we wanted to incorporate the apples in a slightly different way, and create a more festive-looking centerpiece for special gatherings like Rosh Hashanah. 

We know tahini isn't a traditional ingredient in honey cake, but trust us—the complexity and depth of flavor it adds to this dessert makes it worth breaking tradition! Sometimes the most meaningful celebrations happen when we honor the past while embracing something beautifully new.
Forgive us for the photo accompanying this post - it doesn’t do this stunning cake justice in terms of how it actually looked when it flipped it over! If you want some other images or tips on how to get the prettiest upside down apple cake, send us an email to info@seedandmill.com and we’ll give you a private tutorial :) 

INGREDIENTS

For the batter
See batter ingredients & method here.

For the Apples & Caramelized Honey
3 apples, peeled, halved and then sliced into thin pieces (to fan out the apples more easily, keep the slices in the shape of the half apple before using your hand to gently fan the apples inside the baking tin)
1 stick butter (8 tbsp)
½ c honey
½ c sugar

STEPS

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 9-inch baking tin with parchment paper and grease the tin well with butter or baking spray

  2. Fan the sliced apples and lay them in whatever shapes you like on the base of the cake tin and set aside

  3. Make the caramel by melting the butter in a saucepan. Then add the sugar and honey and bring to a boil on high heat until the mixture starts to froth (about 3-4 minutes). While still bubbling, immediately pour the caramel mixture over the apples and set aside.

  4. Make the cake batter by following the method here.

  5. Bake the cake for about 45 minutes (checking to see if a skewer comes out clean before removing from the oven).

  6. Allow to sit for about 10 minutes, before loosening the edges of the cake. When ready to flip, place your serving plate on the top of the cake and invert both the cake tin and plate together. Gently remove the cake tin and pray that the apples kept their pretty shape. Don't panic if they didn't! I promise, the cake is still going to be delicious!

  7. For an optional (but worth it!) step, make the tahini cream cheese frosting from this recipe to serve on the side!

Notes: This cake can be made up to 2-3 days in advance of serving but is best eaten on the day of baking if possible. You can also make the base with the frosting and skip the apples (see that version of this recipe here).