Specialty Cakes - Pineapple Upside Down Cake

For those of you in the United States (there are readers of this blog in other countries), have a fun and safe Fourth of July. As part of our barbecue menu I made a dessert of Triple Berry Pie. I may get to pies as a topic in the future, but for now I wanted to finish up the cake section with another specialty cake, Pineapple Upside Down Cake. It seems appropriate as Pineapple Upside Down Cake has long been a traditional favorite by many bakers for summer desserts including the Fourth of July.



To my knowledge, by nature of what it is and its required ingredients, there are not a lot of variations of the recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I have seen a few that call for a rectangular baking pan, but for the most part they are usually baked in a round pan, often a large skillet as is the case with my recipe, and inverted onto a serving plate.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

1 twenty oz. can of pineapple slices
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tbs. butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
maraschino cherries, halved

1. Drain the juice from the canned pineapple.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
3. In a sifter place the flour, baking powder, and salt. Sift into large bowl together.
4. Cream 1/2 cup butter (beating in an electric mixer) with 1 cup sugar.
5. Beat the egg yolks with egg beater or fork in a separate small bowl. Add yolks to creamed mixture and beat well, then add flour and 1/2 cup milk, alternately, again beating well.
6. In another clean small bowl beat the egg whites (with a hand mixer if you have one, or with a clean egg beater or fork).
7. Fold the egg whites and vanilla extract into the batter.
8. Melt the 2 tbs. butter in a 10" heavy frying pan, one that has a heat resistant handle. (You can also use a 9" x 9" x 2" rectangular baking pan if you don't mind the non-traditional shape.)
9. Spread the brown sugar over the surface of the buttered pan.
10. Place the pineapple slices over the surface of the pan and add maraschino cherries in the centers of the pineapple.
11. Pour the cake batter over the fruit.
12. Bake about 45 min.
13. When done and slightly cooled, invert the pan and turn the cake (upside down, hence the name) onto a serving platter.

Next Week: Baking Powder Biscuits