Apple Cider Pudding Cake アップルサイダープディングケーキ

This is a variation on the theme of pudding cake and a continued celebration of the seasonal joy of apple cider. My wife has recently been trying various recipes baking with apple cider. Several of them used cider that had been concentrated to increase the cider flavor. My wife realized that the pudding cake recipes she had been making used about a cup of plain water poured over the raw dough before cooking to make the base pudding layer. She thought, “how ‘bout replacing the plain water with concentrated apple cider?” So she tried it using the basic recipe for vanilla pudding cake. This turned out to be very good. The top is a nice vanilla flavored cake layer covered with a of crispy crust (left lower) and the bottom is a nice pudding/sauce layer with a rich sweet/tart apple cider flavor.

Ingredient's
4 1/2 cups apple cider concentrated to 1 3/4 cups.
1 stick (4 ounces or 113g) unsalted butter
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons (143g) all-purpose flour, divided: 1 cup or 120g for the batter and 3tbs or 23 g for the topping.)
150 g granulated sugar, divided: (100g for the batter and 50g for the topping.) 
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
To concentrate the apple cider 
Put the cider in a sauce pan. On low to medium heat slowly simmer, stirring occasionally until it is reduced to 1 3/4 cups concentrate. Keep it hot to pour over the batter. 

To make the batter: 
the Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Put the butter in a glass 8x8-inch baking dish. Set it in the oven so the butter melts as the oven preheats.

Meanwhile in a medium bowl, whisk together 1 cup (120g) of the flour, and 100 g of the sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk in the milk and vanilla until smooth. When the butter has melted, remove the baking dish from the oven. Pour the batter over the butter.

To make the topping:
In a small bowl, mix the remaining 3 tablespoons (23g) of flour and the remaining 50g sugar. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the batter. Slowly pour the hot concentrated cider over the topping (do not stir).

Bake the cake until the top is golden brown and the cake is set on top with a gooey pudding layer underneath, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and let it stand until slightly cooled, about 10 minutes.

This cider experiment really worked. The vanilla apple cider cake was an extremely good desert. As the cake cooked the whole kitchen was filled with a very pleasant rich apple cider smell. The thick pudding that formed under the tender vanilla flavored cake layer topped with a sweet crunchy crust had a sweet/tart rich apple cider taste that went with the smell that had filled the kitchen. This is an absolutely wonderful combination of vanilla cake complemented with the sweet tartness of the apple cider. A great celebration of autumn.