Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Cady and I need to start a bakery.  I said that to her last night when we were baking.  This time, we made pineapple upside-down cake for my coworker.  Johnna is the afternoon group leader in my classroom, and her last day is today.  I've only worked there three and a half weeks now, but both she and Jane (the lead teacher) have been so helpful and taught me so much.

I told Jane the day we found out she quit (last week), that I wanted to bake her something.  I was thinking possibly something from those Hannah Swensen books that I was begrudgingly reading since she makes so many cookies, cakes, and pies, but Johnna actually mentioned the other day she was really craving pineapple upside-down cake.  I found a recipe at my go-to kitchen blog, Lick the Bowl Good, so I knew it was meant to be.

Here's the recipe, copy and pasted from her blog.  The recipe is adapted from Southern Cakes.  (You can find the link on her post.)

Pineapple Topping:

• One 20-ounce can pineapple rings (save the juice)
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• maraschino cherries

Cake:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 4 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1 egg, 2 eggs for a lighter batter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp. pineapple juice

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Drain the pineapple well but save 2 tablespoons of the juice for the cake batter. Melt the butter in a 10 inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Or, put the butter in a 9 inch round cake pan and put it in the oven for a few minutes as the heat melts the butter.

Remove the pan from the oven or stove and sprinkle the brown sugar over the buttery surface. Place the pineapple rings carefully on top of the scattered brown sugar and melted butter, arranging them so they fit in 1 layer. (You may have a few left over). Place a cherry in the center of each ring, and set the pan aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Use a fork to mix them together well. Add the milk and butter and beat well with a mixer, scraping down the bowl once or twice until you have a thick, fairly smooth batter, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the egg, reserved pineapple juice and the vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes more, stopping once or twice to scrape down the sides.

Carefully pour the batter over the pineapple arranged in the skillet or cake pan and use a spoon to spread it evenly to the edges of the pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the cake is golden brown and springs back when touched lightly in the center. Cool in the skillet or pan for 5 minutes on a wire rack.

With oven mitts, carefully turn out the warm cake onto a serving plate by placing the plate upside down over the cake in the pan and then flipping them over together to release the cake onto the plate. Serve warm or at room temperature.

We were really pleased with the way it turned out.  When we flipped it, two pineapple rings actually stayed in the pan, but you would never even notice.  We just peeled them off the pan and plopped them down in their rightful place upside down and it looked perfect!

I would have loved to taste it, but I'm not really a pineapple person.  As a child, I was looking for a after-school snack one day and found a can of diced pineapple.  I opened that baby up and ended up eating every last piece of fruit and drinking the juice.  I've never had pineapple since.  It didn't make me sick or anything, but for literally years it just didn't sound appealing.  And now I just don't eat it.

I'm a little behind on our baking adventures because last weekend we baked a four-layer cake for our grandma's birthday and I have quite a story to tell about that one.  I still need to copy the recipe from Cady's book though.  So stay tuned!

Johnna said it tasted great!