Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Bringing back the retro classic! You’ll love this Pineapple Upside Down Cake with the sticky caramelized edges on the pineapple. The ultra-moist, tender vanilla cake is studded with pineapple pieces and infused with pineapple juice. You can’t help but smile at the sight of this cheerful-looking cake. Pineapple Upside Down Cakes were all the rage from the 60’s right through the 80’s. Though as far as Aussies are concerned, they never went out of fashion. Rarely a summer would go by without one making an appearance at a barbie at some stage! “Upside Down” refers to the way the cake is made. Like a French tarte tatin, the cake is assembled and baked with fruit at the bottom and the batter on top. To turn it out, you flip the cake upside down, leaving you with the glistening, caramel-napped fruit layer exposed and the cake underneath it – Upside Down Cake!
The cake part is a vanilla cake. You’ll see versions that are more on the pudding-like side (ie. quite dense and wet like syrup-soaked cakes) and others that are quite dry sponge cakes. Mine lies squarely in the middle. It’s soft and fluffy, like my classic Vanilla Cake (except this is faster to make), but it is a bit more moist than traditional cakes because of the juices from the pineapple (and we are all for those juices!). As for that pineapple topping? Think juicy pineapple pieces with caramelized edges, studded with sweet candied cherries. It is literally the crowning glory of this cake!
Ingredients:
- 565g/ 20 oz canned pineapple slices in juice
- 12 – 18+ maraschino cherries
- 60g/ 4 tbsp unsalted butter , melted
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda (sub 1 tsp baking powder)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup milk , full or low-fat
- 1/4 cup pineapple juice , reserved from can
- 1/4 cup sour cream , full fat (sub plain yogurt)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 115g/ 1 stick butter , unsalted, softened
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs , at room temperature
- Any leftover pineapple , chopped