Pineapple Upside Down Bundt Cake

I love Pineapple Upside Down cake! It is a wonderful treat. And so simple to make. Tonight I made the cake in my fluted bundt cake pan.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup brown sugar

6 pineapple slice  from 20 ounce can (reserve juice)

6 maraschino cherries

1 box yellow cake mix

1 cup pineapple juice (from pineapple can)

1/2 cup canola oil

3 eggs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour the melted butter into a 12 cup fluted bundt cake pan. Sprinkle brown sugar over the melted butter.

Place pineapple slices over the brown sugar. Put a cherry into each of the pineapple slices.

In a large bowl combine the yellow cake mix with the pineapple juice, canola oil and eggs.

Pour the cake mixture over the fruit and bake for 40 to 45 minutes in the 350 degree preheated oven.

The cake should be golden brown and a toothpick inserted should come out clean.  Cool the cake in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.

Place a plate over the bundt cake pan and turn the pan over onto the plate.

This cake is so easy to cut into slices! Enjoy!

My Final Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe (For Now)

Yes, I made four Pineapple Upside Down cake recipes. This will be my final Pineapple Upside Down cake recipe - for now! I don't know if I will see another recipe that I absolutely have to try! Although I think my family is a little tired of the Pineapple Upside Down cake.

Today I remade the Betty Crocker recipe with a few changes!

1/4 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 fresh pineapple cut unto rings
15 fresh cherries
1 box of Betty Crocker SuperMoist yellow cake mix
vegetable oil and eggs called for on the cake mix box
1 cup of unsweetened pineapple juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a 13x9-inch pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the butter. Arrange the fresh pineapple slices on the brown sugar. Since I am using fresh cherries I can not place them on the cake until after it has baked.

The fresh pineapple rings are a little larger and thicker. Add 1 cup of pineapple juice to the yellow cake mix  instead of water and add the vegetable oil and eggs as directed.  Then pour the batter over the pineapple slices.

Bake for about 42 to 48 minutes.

Once the cake comes out of the oven - invert it onto a serving platter. Using a cherry pitter - pit the cherries and add them to the cake.

Guess what? This was everyone's favorite recipe. Sorry Paula and Emeril - your recipes were really good. But Betty's was best! What is the moral of this story? Fresh fruit is always better. And we can not be cake mix snobs.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe #3

Today I wanted to make a Pineapple Upside Down cake with fresh pineapple and cherries. I used Emeril Lagasse's recipe. On the Food Network website this recipe received 5 stars and almost all of the reviews  (about 90 reviews) were favorable.

He called for fresh pineapple rings - so I bought a pineapple ring maker. I bought it at Sur la Table and it was around $15. But they sent me a $10 gift card for being a valued customer and I had to get it! Right?

It worked perfectly!

Check out my beautiful pineapple rings! I am sorry that my photo is so dark in the corner - I only took one photo with the ring maker  because I was so excited to start the recipe with my beautiful fresh pineapple rings.

Here is another dark photo of my pineapple rings. But I think you got the gist of my pineapple ring maker!


1/2 ripe medium pineapple, peeled, cored and sliced into rounds
1 1/2 sticks of butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
14 pecan halves
1 cup cake flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon dark rum*
4 fresh cherries, halved and pits removed

* I did not have any dark rum in the house - we had wine, vodka and tequila. So I used some rum extract that I must have bought last Thanksgiving or Christmas. I think it worked perfectly.

Okay - Emeril used a 10" cast iron skillet. I did not have a 10" cast iron skillet. But when I was reading the reviews - many people said that they used a 9" cake pan. Yes! I had a 9" cake pan. Yeah me! So I decided not to buy the 10" cast iron skillet.

Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in your cake pan over medium heat . Add the brown sugar and stir to combine. Increase the heat to medium high and cook until the sugar mixture is bubbly. Arrange fresh pineapple slices in a pleasing pattern and continue to cook for about two more minutes. Remove from heat and turn the pineapple slices over. Arrange the pecan halves in the spaces between the pineapple rings and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Stir together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the remaining stick of butter and the granulated sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing until just incorporated. Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture alternately in 3 batches, mixing at low speed after each addition until just combined. Stir in the vanilla and rum.

Spoon the batter evenly over the pineapple slices. Bake in the middle of the oven for 35 to 40 minutes. I just baked mine for 35 minutes.

Once the cake has cooled for a few minutes run a knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a serving platter.

Garnish the cake with fresh cherries. I used a cherry pitter to remove the pits.

I also bought the cherry pitter at Sur la Table - I think it was around $12.  And it worked like a charm. It removed the pit - but the cherry was still intact and perfectly round.

Now for the Vote - drumroll please......

Noelle liked the top of Emeril's cake - but her vote is still for Betty Crocker. Todd thought Emeril's cake was a little dry, he still likes Paula Deen's recipe. I liked Emeril's recipe a lot but the recipe that was the easiest and the most moist was the Betty Crocker recipe.

So.......I am going to make the Betty Crocker next week - except that I am going to use fresh pineapple and cherries.

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

After searching the internet for another Pineapple Upside Down Cake recipe - I came across Paula Deen's recipe (I love you Paula!).

So I decide to adapt a version of Paula's cake and convert the recipe to cupcakes. Cupcakes are easier to bring over to your neighbors and to give away when friends stop over. I don't want another huge cake in the house!

Nonstick cooking spray
3 cups cake flour, plus more for pans
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup butter, melted
2 1/4 cups sugar
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups whole buttermilk
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
3 (20-ounce) cans pineapple slices in juice, drained well
1 (10-ounce) jar maraschino cherries with stems, drained well

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray two cupcake pans with cooking spray and coat with cake flour.

In a large bowl beat 1 cup of butter until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time. Beating well after you add each egg. Stir in the vanilla and set aside.

In a small bowl, add the 3 cups of flour, baking powder and salt. Stir to combine. Add the flour mixture into the egg mixture, alternating with the buttermilk but beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

Divide the brown sugar into each of the cupcake  cups - I guess it equals a few tablespoons per cupcake cup.  Now add a little melted butter over the brown sugar.

 Here it gets a little tricky.  You need to cut about 1/2 inch out of the pineapple ring to get it to fit into the cupcake cup. I decided to add the cherry after I cooked the cupcake. Press the pineapple ring down into the brown sugar.

Add the batter on top of each pineapple.  Bake for about 20 -25 minutes.

I couldn't find a platter large enough to turn the the cupcake pan upside down. So I laid out a large piece parchment paper  on my counter and turned the cupcake pan upside down on the parchment paper. Then I was able to place the cupcakes onto a platter.

 Add a stemmed cherry to each of the cupcakes.

Now it time for the vote. Todd voted for Paula Deen's recipe and Noelle voted for Betty Crocker.  And I think I am also going to vote for Betty's recipe also. Sorry Paula!

 My son didn't vote - he wanted ice cream for dessert tonight.

Okay - each can of pineapple rings has 10 rings and we needed 24 rings to make our cupcakes. I was thinking of chopping the remaining six rings and mixing them with vanilla ice cream. I still might do this! Or I can just think about it!

I am going to make one more Pineapple Upside down Cake - and then have another family vote! I am trying to only make three recipes - I have gone crazy in the past trying to make the perfect biscotti (10 different recipes) peach cobbler (all summer long one year) and I can't even tell you about my key lime pie recipe addiction (because it is embarrassing).

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Over the weekend my husband and I had dinner at Roy's. For dessert we shared a pineapple upside down cake. I was super excited when we ordered dessert because I had wanted to make a pineapple upside down cake forever! I could never find the time, a recipe, etc.

So when my dessert from Roy's came to our table (I wish I had a photo) I was so disappointed. It was a butter mini bundt cake with a scoop of coconut ice cream with a pineapple shaped cookie on top of the ice cream.

I know. Where were the pineapple and  cherries? I was assuming that they would use fresh pineapple and cherries. But as my Mom always told me "never assume."

So this is what I am going to do - Start with the Betty Crocker version of the Pineapple Upside Down Cake (which by the way my family LOVED) and then try a fancier version next week and take a vote on the best recipe.

Easy Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
(recipe adapted from the Betty Crocker website)

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 can (20 oz) pineapple slices in juice, drained, juice removed
1 jar (10 oz) maraschino cherries without stems, drained
1 box of yellow cake mix
  Vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a glass 13x9-inch pan, melt the butter in the oven. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the melted butter. Arrange the pineapple slices on the brown sugar. Place a cherry in the center of each pineapple slice and arrange the remaining cherries around the slices, pressing gently into the brown sugar.

Add enough water to the reserved pineapple juice to measure 1 cup. Make the cake batter as directed on the box, substituting the pineapple juice mixture for the water. Pour the batter over the pineapple and cherries.
        
Bake for about 45 minutes or until a fork inserted ito the ceter of the cake comes out clean. Run a knife around the side of the pan to loosen the cake. Turn the cake over onto a serving tray. The cake can be served warm or cooled. The leftover should be stored covered in the refrigerator.

I turned the cake over on a glass tray - I did not have a white serving dish large enough. But I am going to buy one this week.

My taste testers (kids) had a few bites before dinner and declared it the "best cake ever!"

Two things that I would like to add - first the house smelled wonderful while the cake was baking and second the brown sugar formed a perfect crust over the pineapple. Yum.

Oops! I need to add a few more tips.... it is fantastic served with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream. We tried it both ways! Also I saved the cherry juice and used it to make Shirley Temples!