Pineapple Upside-down Cake

So it’s been 3 weeks now since we moved to our new place. I don’t think any month has gone by as fast as this one :-) Ever since we’ve moved in I’ve been dying to do one thing….bake something in the new oven. Finally I thought I will just try baking a box cake mix first. I had a Yellow Cake box mix in my pantry and though I wanted to jazz up the box cake a bit , I din’t want to use any sweet icing and all. And what do I see on my kitchen counter calling out to me….?

A lovely and perfectly ripe pineapple  :-) so Pineapple Upside-down Cake was my first thought.

It’s called an Upside-down cake b’coz the fruit layer along with some brown sugar glazed is placed at the bottom of the cake pan and the cake batter is then poured over the fruit-glaze layer and then baked. Later the cake is turned upside down and served as such with the fruit and sugar glaze on the top. 

Any fruits like cherries, peaches, cherries apples etc can be used for this cake and it’s a really good way to enjoy some cake without all the frosting and sugary icing.

So here’s what I did. I got my cake batter ready (it’s in the red bowl),  greased my 9” spring foam cake pan, made the brown sugar glaze and then skinned , sliced and cored my pineapple. Placed the brown sugar glaze on the bottom of the cake pan, arranged with pineapple slices on top, decorated with glazed cherries and poured the cake batter over the fruit and baked away!

I started making the cake around 6pm, so I got good snaps of the pineapple slices n all, but by the time the cake baked and cooled it was around 8pm and all the good sunlight gone, so I had to take a pic in tubelight (that’s the first pic). And no one wanted to wait till morning for me to take good snaps :-P So here’s few more I took the next day with what was left.

Juicy, moist, crumbly, almost pudding like are the adjectives the folks at home called while ooh-ing and aah-ing over the cake. The Pineapple slices were so sweet and juicy and the brown sugar glaze almost tasted like Indian Chikki.

The cake was super yumm…my parents usually don’t eat too much sweet stuff and they went for seconds and thirds. My dad’s a fan of my cakes and was eagerly waiting for the cake to be done and he took the first slice. The whole cake was over in two days  :-)

Pineapple Upside-down Cake

You’ll need

Yellow Cake box mix – 1 (I used Betty crocker brand, can use any vanilla cake mix)

Ripe Pineapple slices – 2-3 (or as required)

Glazed cherries – as required (optional)

Brown sugar – ¾ cup

Butter – 4 tblsp ( I had only 2 tblsp, so used that)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F (or as per box mix instructions) and grease a 9” cake pan with butter and keep aside.

2. Prepare the cake batter as per box mix instructions.

3. Prepare the brown sugar glaze by adding brown sugar and butter in a saucepan and heat it until the butter melts and the glaze is smooth.

4. Pour the brown sugar glaze in the cake pan and spread it around the pan. Place the pineapple slices however you like over the glaze and decorate with glazed cherries.

5. Pour the cake batter over the fruit and bake at 325F for 55-60mins. (Mine was done at 55mins)

6. Let the cake cool for 15 mins over the counter and run a knife around the edges of the cake and invert the cake onto a plate or cake stand. Once the cake has cooled remove the cake pan. Serve and enjoy some delicious slices of a super yummy cake!

It’s a super easy cake to make and the tastes just heavenly and a perfect way to jazz up a simple box cake mix. Canned pineapple rings can also be used if you do not have a ripe pineapple.  Nuts like pecans or walnuts can also be used instead of glazed cherries or use both. And if you do not have a box cake mix, you can use any simple Vanilla cake recipe , here’s an Eggless Vanilla cake or Vanilla Sponge Cake that I shared earlier.

A reader on my facebook page suggested that the cake can also be called as Pineapple sunny-side-up cake :-) call it what you want, it’s simply yumm! Go and bake one right now and taste it for yourself. Don’t forget to share your feedback with me if you do :-)

-Manju