The batter is fairly thick, so when you pour apples into the center, they don't sink, they just stay in the center, on the top. I used a small rectangular dish which resulted in the corners not having apples in the pudding. In the future, I would take a small amount of the apples and mix them into the batter, then pour into the dish, and put the rest of the apples into the center for a nice presentation. I baked for about 38 minutes, and the pudding was still a little dough-y, so be sure the center is fully cooked...but this was not a huge problem. Garnished with some sliced fresh apples.