Since 1975, for pot-lucks I have always made a German apple coffee cake, Apfelkuchen, from a genuine German recipe. Then one day a a couple years ago (early/mid 2016) I got a hankering for a change and decided to try pineapple upside-down cake.
So I did what I usually do when researching a new recipe. I searched on-line for several recipes, printed out the likely ones, and merged what I liked to create my own recipe. It's easy to make and has been very well received. It wasn't until I wrote the recipe down for my sister that I realized I should post it here too.
Before I present my actual recipe, I think I should discuss some of the basic considerations that go into making a pineapple upside-down cake and the reasons for my particular approach. Or if you would rather, you could go straight to the recipe, though you should probably also refer to the shopping list which immediately precedes it.
A basic pineapple upside-down cake involves cake batter, and a topping that most commonly includes pineapple slices, cherries, melted butter or margarine, and brown sugar. The topping is laid down in the bottom of the baking vessel (sorry for the contrived terminology), the batter is poured in over it, the cake is baked, and finally the cake is removed by laying a serving plate over the baking vessel and inverted the both of them together to transfer the cake to the serving plate.
What I've seen used as a baking vessel is a baking pan (eg, 13x9-inch Pyrex pan), a skillet (I use an 11-inch ScanPan), or a Bundt pan. One factor affected by your choice of baking vessel will be the number of pineapple slices you will need. For example, my 11-inch skillet makes a 117 square-inch cake for which 10 slices are ideal (three of them are cut in half and go onto the sides). A 13×9-inch pan would make a 95 square-inch cake, plus the geometry would be different (a rectangle instead of a circle), so a different number of slices might be called for. You will need to work out those details for yourself.
Using a Bundt pan raises a few issues. Rounding up the thickness slightly, my cake turns out to be about 214 cubic inches in volume (11-inch diameter, about 2.25 inches thick) or about 15 cups, so you would need a Bundt pan large enough to contain that or else figure out how to divide up the batter, including how much batter to put in a smaller pan accounting for how much it will rise. Using the Bundt pan would also require some creativity in arranging the toppings. In the single Bundt recipe I looked at, the pineapple slices were all sliced in half or thirds and set into the depressions in the pan alternating with the cherries at what would end up being the top crest of the cake. If you do a search for pineapple upside-down Bundt cake, then they will give you a far better description.
You can make the batter from scratch or with a cake mix; I use a cake mix.
One of the ingredients for the mix is a cup of water, but every single recipe I found calls for you to use the pineapple juice that the pineapple slices came in, adding only enough water to make it come out a full cup (the canned slices I use come in very nearly a full cup of juice). I think that gives the cake itself more of a pineapple flavor.
The Bundt recipe included a small packet of vanilla instant pudding mix, a practice which I have adopted. I did not use it in my first cake and I found that the cake tended to fall apart a bit too easily. The Bundt cake would need more body and could not afford to fall apart so easily, so I reasoned that the purpose of the pudding mix was to give it that body, that needed extra firmness. And so for that reason I also add the pudding mix. Everybody I tell that to says that the pudding mix makes the cake moister, so there's that too.
I experimented a couple times with adding a few teaspoons of crushed pineapple. I thought that it might add to the flavor and texture, but it didn't seem to add much. Plus I always felt that I was in danger of disturbing the balance between wet and dry ingredients, which is very important in baking, so I discontinued that experiment.
The serving plate is another concern. Recipes call for it to be heat-proof because you're going to plop a hot cake onto it. Also, it has to be big enough for the cake. I have only one plate that fits that bill and at every pot-luck I had to watch it like a hawk -- if you ever took Tupperware to a pot-luck, you know that feeling all too well (housewives, such as my ex-wife, are extremely protective of their Tupperware and promise to do you great harm should you lose any of it). So at a dollar store I bought a few 13-in round plastic serving plates. The heat of the cake does not seem to affect it and at a dollar a pop they're practically disposable; you don't care if you have to leave one behind.
When I go shopping for the ingredients, here is what I buy:
The two important things to look for are that you get enough slices (10 for me, but using a different baking vessel might change that number for you) and that it's packed in pineapple juice.
Some canned pineapple slices are packed in heavy syrup, including Dole's brand, so always be sure to read the label to see what it's packed in.
I think I can imagine that some would prefer to use the heavy syrup instead of pineapple juice, but in either case you will still need to read the label to be sure of what you're getting.
Total Time: about 1 hour
Ingredients:
Ingredients called for by the mix:
Directions:
Et voilà!
First uploaded on 2017 December 24.
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Recipe for Pineapple Upside-Down Cake in a Skillet
Cake Batter:
1 small box vanilla instant pudding mix 1 box Yellow cake mix
1 cup Pineapple juice (substitute for the water) 1/2 cup Vegetable oil (or butter if you got a butter cake mix) 3 Eggs
Topping:
1/4 cup Butter 1/2 to 1 cup Brown sugar 10 Pineapple slices 13 Maraschino cherries, jumbo
In the skillet, create a layer of melted butter and brown sugar, then arrange the pineapple slices and cherries in it.
For the most part, you will simply follow the instructions on the cake mix box.
The only differences will be the addition of the instant pudding and substituting pineapple juice for the water.