PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

Print Recipe
Course Dessert

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cans 8 ½ -oz. sizesliced pineapple
  • ¼ cup butter
  • 2/3 cup light-brown sugar firmly packed.
  • 8 maraschino cherries drained
  • ¼ cup pecan halves
  • 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ cup shortening
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1 egg
  • Whipped cream

Instructions
 

  • (Begin about 1 hour and 20 minutes ahead of serving time; it should be served warm.)
  • Preheat oven to 350° F.
  • Drain pineapple, reserving 2 tablespoons of the syrup.
  • Melt butter in a 10-inch heavy skillet, over low heat. Add brown sugar, stirring until sugar is melted. Remove from heat. Arrange drained pineapple on sugar mixture in skillet. Fill centers of pineapple slices with cherries and spaces between slices with pecans. Set aside.
  • Into medium bowl, sift flour with granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add shortening and milk. With electric mixer at medium speed, beat for 2 minutes. (Easy to mix by hand actually.)
  • Add egg and reserved pineapple syrup; beat 2 minutes longer. Pour cake batter over pineapple in skillet, spreading evenly.
  • Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until cake springs back when gently pressed with fingertip.
  • Let stand on a wire rack just 5 minutes. Loosen cake from edge of skillet. Cover with serving plate; invert; shake gently, then lift off pan.
  • Serve warm with whipped cream.

Notes

These two upside down cakes are made in a skillet, though baked in the oven. So,you do not need a cake pan to your name to try them. The Pineapple Upside-Down Cake recipe is adapted from the “Food Section” of The Baltimore Sun and has been a family favorite since the late sixties. The Rhubarb version is a more recent acquisition.
Family favorites – Juniper’s favorite birthdaycake.
This recipe has been kitchen tested.
A close cousin – adapted from Taste of Home (if youdo not like the tartness of rhubarb, stick to the pineapple-upside down cake above)–butspring is a good time to experience and experiment with rhubarb.
Click here to go to Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake
Keyword Cakes, Desserts