Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe

I made a Pineapple Upside Down Cake for my Love slave's birthday. Ok, before I get emails about that let me explain. Eddie Atwell, my partner, gave himself this name the first time he ever went to one of my family reunions.

It was one of those reunions where many of the elder's could not keep up with all the young'uns and who belonged to who. So we had name tags and every one kept putting their name and who they were kin to, like Denise, Lena's daughter.  Well in the spirit of that, Eddie put on his name tag, "Eddie, Denise's Love Slave", and it stuck!!  Family call me and ask me all the time, "How's your Love Slave?" And he is just fine.

So for his birthday Sunday I made a Pineapple Upside down cake. It was that or an Apple Dapple cake, (which I will share that recipe probably later in the fall).  I didn't have the apples but had pineapple. Besides I have had several asking me about my recipe and I thought that would be good to share on this blog and so I am. It's all I got cooked as it's been one of those weeks. But it made a nice addition to KFC.

My Pineapple Upside Down cake recipe is really a modified hot water sponge cake from a 1940's cookbook. I bake it in a 10 inch, deep dish, cast iron skillet. The skillet belonged to my great grandmother and is the same one I make cornbread in.  You can use a larger skillet just monitor it on cooking time as it won't take as long.

I remember I once gave this recipe to a friend and she said it tasted great but the cake kept falling. As a matter of fact, all her cakes she said fell.  I watched her one time baking and she would open the oven about every fifteen minutes to look at a cake. Just in case there are new cooks out there who don't know, YOU DON'T do that!! Until a cake is just about the end of the cooking time or it's done. That's why it falls, even if it is a box cake! The oven temperature drops. And don't stomp around your oven either as that will make a cake fall. My mother would chase us out of the house if we dared to stomp around her oven or even be in her kitchen when she baked a cake.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

4 eggs separated
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 can pineapple slices (lg.) drained, SAVE the JUICE
1/2 cup pineapple juice heated to boiling
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla or lemon extract
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
Maraschino cherries

Cake batter
Beat 4 egg yolks until very thick; Beat 4 egg whites separately until stiff peaks form, set aside;  Gradually add the egg yolks to the white sugar and beat until well mixed. Add heated pineapple juice; mix well. Sift rest of the dry ingredients together, (flour, salt, baking powder) add and mix well; add the extract and fold in the egg whites; mix until smooth.

Prepare the skillet
Melt 1/4 cup butter in skillet on top of stove; add 2/3 cup brown sugar and mix well. Remove from stove.

Arrange Pineapple slices in bottom of skillet on top of butter and brown sugar mix. Put Maraschino cherries in center of slices.

Pour Cake batter in skillet on top of pineapple slices. Bake 325 degrees for 1 hour (slow oven) Let cool slightly (about 5 minutes, cools too much and it will stick in the pan) and flip onto large plate. The pineapple will be on top. Pineapple Upside down cake.

We like it served with vanilla ice cream. 

I have a TON of RECIPES. Many came with the family history stuff. If there are any you are specifically looking for let me know, I might have it. If you need Appalachian "exotic meat" recipes, (you know deer, squirrel, ground hog)  let me know too. We have some of those also.   Any you would like to see just comment or contact, or look for me on Facebook under Appalachian Heart Wood Blogger. I will get this blog linked to that eventually.

Copyright 2007-2016 Denise Smith