Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Although an upside-down cake is traditionally made with pineapple, fruits like peaches, pears, plums, apples or berries work just as well. I always thought that an upside–down cake was too challenging and complicated to make until I saw this simple recipe on Joy of Baking.

This was my first time making a cake like this and I was very pleased with the results- this is a cake that tastes as good as it looks.

I did make some minor changes to the recipe by cutting down on the butter, sugar and milk and the cake still turned out fine. The proportions I've mentioned worked well for me.

Ingredients:

For the topping:

• 3 Tbsp butter, melted
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 pineapple (peeled, quartered, cored, and sliced ¼ inch thick)

 For the cake batter:

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 5 Tbsp butter
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup milk

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease the bottom and sides of a round cake pan.

In a small bowl, melt the butter and brown sugar in the microwave. Mix well and heat for another minute or so till the sugar melts and the mixture turns bubbly.

Pour this mixture into a round cake pan and spread it around a bit so that it coats the bottom of the pan and arrange the pineapple pieces in a single layer over it.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix well.

Combine the dry and wet ingredients together. Add milk to loosen the batter a bit and mix well.

Dump the batter into the pan over the pineapple layer and spread to get a uniform layer of batter. Smooth the top and place in the oven. Bake at 350 F for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. (I let the cake sit in the oven for another 10 minutes after turning it off.)

Cool the cake in the pan for about 5 minutes, run a knife around the sides of the cake to loosen it and invert onto a serving plate. Slice and serve warm.

Update: I made this cake again but used plums this time. I also added the zest of one orange to the batter. The cake was a big hit and was gone in just 2 days! 

                       Plum upside-down cake