Gingerbread Apple Upside Down Cake

• 8 TBS butter, half melted and half softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 Golden Delicious or Pink Lady apples, cored and sliced into wedges, not too thick or thin
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup molasses
• 1/3 cup Delicious Orchards apple cider
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 TBS finely chopped crystallized ginger
• 1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9-inch round cake pan with the melted butter. Combine brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over butter. Starting in center of pan, arrange apple slices in concentric overlapping circles over bottom. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together softened butter and granulated sugar. Beat in egg, molasses and cider (mixture may appear curdled). In another bowl, sift together flour, ginger, baking soda and salt. Stir into creamed mixture until smooth. Slowly pour batter over apples. Bake 30 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes. To serve, invert cake onto a platter spooning on excess sugar from pan. Fold crystallized ginger into whipped cream. Serve warm with whipped cream.