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Recipe

Pineapple Upside Down Cake with Real Pineapple

current situation: pineapple upside down cake… i used real pineapples!

I used real pineapples. That is the whole headline and it is the whole difference. Fresh pineapple holds its shape, caramelises at the edges and actually tastes of fruit; the tinned rings are soft and syrupy and they dissolve into the caramel.

There is one catch and it is worth knowing: raw pineapple contains an enzyme that breaks down protein, which would turn the cake batter to soup if they sat together uncooked. They do not — the caramel step cooks it off before the batter goes near it.

Baked in a tray rather than a round tin, so it cuts into squares and everybody gets a ring.

Makes
12 squares
Hands-on
35 minutes
Bake
45 minutes
Turn out
At 5 minutes

An hour and three quarters. The one moment that matters is turning it out at five minutes.

Pineapple upside down cake cut into squares
Shot the night it was made. Open the picture for the full photograph.

What you need

The caramel base

  • 1 stick butter
  • 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 fresh pineapple, peeled, cored, in 1/2-inch rings
  • Glacé cherries
  • 3/4 cup pecan halves

The cake

  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 sticks soft butter
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 tsp vanilla

How it goes

  1. 1 — Cut the rings half an inch thick

    Thinner and they vanish into the caramel; thicker and the cake cannot rise around them. Core them with a small cutter or a knife.

  2. 2 — Dry the rings on a towel

    Fresh pineapple is full of juice and any extra water thins the caramel into syrup. Patted properly dry on both sides.

  3. 3 — Caramel straight in the pan, on the stove

    Butter, brown sugar and salt melted together in the baking pan over low heat until smooth and bubbling, then spread to the corners and taken off.

  4. 4 — Lay the rings, cherries in the holes, pecans between

    Pineapple down in rows, a glacé cherry in each centre, pecans face down in the gaps. Everything laid face down becomes face up at the end.

  5. 5 — Cream butter and sugar four full minutes

    Until genuinely pale and fluffy. This is a plain cake and the only lift it gets besides baking powder is the air you beat in now.

  6. 6 — Batter spread gently over the fruit

    Spooned on in blobs and then spread carefully so nothing is dragged out of position. Firm batter, not pourable — that is why it holds the arrangement.

  7. 7 — 350°F for 42 to 48 minutes

    Until a skewer in the cake part comes out clean. The caramel underneath will be bubbling hard around the edges.

  8. 8 — Five minutes, then turn it out. Not ten.

    A board or tray over the pan and one decisive flip. Five minutes is the whole window — earlier and the caramel is liquid, later and it has set and glued the fruit to the pan.

    pro tip — If a ring stays behind, lift it off with a palette knife and put it back where it belongs. Nobody will ever know.

  9. 9 — Cool twenty minutes, then cut into squares

    Warm enough that the caramel is still glossy, cool enough that the squares hold.

I used real pineapples. You can taste it from across the room. LFG.

More of what comes out of this kitchen on the food wall.

Every picture on this page is one of mine. I paint for a living the rest of the time — that is the gallery, and the originals are for sale.