Pineapple Upside Down Cake

A traditional classic. Juicy, sweet and soft Pineapple Upside cake.

Yesterday was the hubby's bday and his favorite cake of all time is a simple pound cake. And I make it religiously every year for him for our own little family celebration. He is a guy who does not eat any other type of cake. The chocolatey cakes, the black forests, the german chocolates, the carrots cakes, the strawberry cakes etc do not impress him at all. So, its almost by default that he gets his favorite pound cake every year.

But this year, just to dress it up a bit and also since one of his favorite fruits is pineapple, I wanted to bake this for him. And yes, he was happy with it and loved it and ate a couple of slices immediately after cutting it - that's like winning the lottery given his track record!

I looked for a good recipe in multiple places but finally settled with this one from Joy of Baking. Thank you Stephanie Jaworski for a wonderful recipe. I love how moist the inside of the cake was. The outside crust it to die for. maybe not. coz if I'm dead I can't eat the outside crust. Let's just say its worth living for! I wish there was more just just one circle of crust. Not fair.

So here is the ingredient list. This is taken from the Joy of Baking site - Pineapple Upside Down cake. Please refer to the link for a printable and detailed recipe too.

Topping:

4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) (55 grams) unsalted butter

3/4 cup (160 grams) light brown sugar

1 medium pineapple (peeled, quartered, cored, and sliced 1/4 inch thick)

Maraschino cherries or candied cherries (optional)

Cake Batter:

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, separated

1/2 cup (120 ml) milk

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

I've explained the steps with pictures here.

First, let's get ready with the flour mix. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour. I used cake flour. Sift it along with 2 tsps baking powder and 1.4 tsp salt. Sift and set aside.

Now to make the topping that actually goes under the cake.

Before you make this, make sure your cake pan is greased and ready to go. I uses a 9 inch round pan. And I absolutely love the Pillsbury baking spray for pans - just a few sprays and you are ready to go. If you don't have the spray, you can just butter and flour the pan well on the base and the sides.

Take 1 stick of butter (1/4 cup) and melt it in a small pan. As the butter melts, add 3/4 cup of brown sugar and keep stirring. In a few mins, you'll see that the sugar will begin to caramelize. As soon as you see the frothiness come up and the sugar starts forming a ball - just pour it into the pan immediately and swirl the pan around so that it reaches all sides. The caramel will start to thicken immediately and that's totally fine.

 Now add pineapple rings all around on top of the caramel base. I had fresh pineapple at home but chose to use the canned pineapple rings. For one, they are even sized and perfectly ripe pieces and somehow they look a lot more pretty and the much I read, this seems to work better for this type of cake. But make sure you buy the one where the pieces are stored in 100% juice and not just a preservative syrup. Fill the centers with maraschino cherries. If you have pecans, you can fill the open spaces with whole pecans which also tastes great in a PUDC.  I actually filled a few more holes here with more cherries.

Pre heat the oven to 350F.

Separate 2 eggs in and save the yolks and whites in two different bowls.

Move the egg whites to an electric mixer or use a hand held mixer to whip up. Add 1/4 tsps of cream of tartar to the egg whites and whip them together for a few mins until you see soft white peaks. Move this out of the bowl and save aside.

Wash the bowl one time, paper dry and then add the butter and sugar in here and mix until you get a nice fluffy mix. That will be 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup white sugar.

Add 1 tsp of good quality vanilla extract and mix again with the butter and sugar.

Now add the 2 saved egg yolks one at a time and mix well along with the rest of the ingredients.

Once the eggs are incorporated well, add the flour mixture and 1/2 cup of milk alternately starting and ending with the flour mix. Scrape down the sides and make sure all the flour is incorporated well. The batter will feel really thick at this point but the next step will take care of that.

Finally, remove the bowl from the mixer and gently fold in the egg whites to the cake batter.

Gently move all the batter on top of the pineapple slices in the cake pan. And smooth down the batter on top.

Pop it in the oven for about 45 mins or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let the cake cool down for about 10 mins.

Using a thin spatula or a knife, run around the edges once to ease the cake out.

Place your cake stand on top and invert it all together.

Tada. Big smile. Wide Smile. Warm feeling. Bliss!

I should have waited a few more mins. The center of my cake split a little bit but you can't really see it unless you look for it. So, don't be in a hurry - just let it rest for 10 mins before you flip it around.

The best part of the cake was the caramel oozing out! Ooohh I loved it!

As you can see the texture inside was perfect. The cake was supremely soft to eat. I think the milk and the egg whites do the trick!

You can serve with whipped cream if you like. Here is a little mango whipped cream that I made for a mango cake last week. The pineapple and the mango flavors mix beautifully and it was just a total pleasure to eat.

So, what are you waiting for? Go make some fancy schmancy pineapple upside down cake for yourself!

Like I said, Bliss.

Enjoy! Peace Out!