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Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
This soft, sweet cake makes a pretty addition to any post-dinner spread. The contrast between the golden pineapple slices, which grew in popularity after James Dole purchased nearly the entire island of Lanai in Hawaii to transform it into a pineapple farm in the 1920s, and the fiery red maraschino cherries, popularized in the post-Prohibition era after the cherries were stored in a sugar syrup instead of alcohol, catches my eye every time.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cooling Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8-10 1x
- Category: Bakery
Ingredients
Scale
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 7–8 slices canned pineapple
- 14 maraschino cherries
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- Pinch of kosher salt
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon rum extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a small bowl, melt the butter in the microwave.
- Pour the melted butter evenly into a 9-inch springform cake pan set on top of a baking sheet.
- Sprinkle the brown sugar over the melted butter.
- Add 5 whole slices of pineapple in the (See photo.)
- Halve 2 pineapple slices and place them between the whole slices.
- Place one cherry in the center cut-outs of both the whole and halved slices and in any outside gaps. (See photo.)
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, cardamom, and salt.
- In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, sour cream, vegetable oil, vanilla, and rum extract.
- Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture and fold it in with a spatula just until combined. Do not overmix.
- Carefully pour the batter over the pineapple in the pan.
- Bake for 40 minutes, or until the cake is set and golden.
- Place the pan on a wire rack to cool for at least 30 minutes or longer before removing the springform pan ring and inverting onto a cake plate. Slice and serve.
