Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Maraschino cherries are traditional, but can be replaced with pecan halves and/or pitted prunes, placed best side down in the holes and gaps of the pineapple. And I am willing to bet that Millie Peartree uses buttermilk, as I do, added alternately with the dry ingredients. The Greek yogurt thinned with milk seems like unnecessary, trendy fussiness.

My wife put soy sauce in the unlabeled container where we usually put vanilla extract, and you probably know where this is headed - I ended up putting 1/2 tsp of soy instead of vanilla in the topping! Luckily my daughter caught the mistake before I also put the soy sauce in the cake. In the end though, I think the soy in the topping added a dash of umami and cut the sweetness in the fruit just a bit. Overall, delicious!

Yes you can. I always make it with fresh pineapple and Amarena cherries. So much better than canned pineapple and those horrible tasting, garishly red, maraschino cherries.

This is an old fashioned recipe made using pantry staples. It is quick and economical. I'm sure it would be great with fresh pineapple, but in our rural stores fresh pineapples are usually very unripe and quite expensive.

This is my go-to dessert. I use a yellow cake mix, lemon or orange zest, a good brand of canned pineapple, dark brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and a few raisins. Pineapple juice (instead of water) and zest go in the batter. Over 1 1/4 sticks of butter melted in a 9x13” pan, I layer 1 1/2 C sugar, a dust of cinnamon, pineapple rings or chunks, raisins and the batter and bake as directed. The moisture and flavor improves if made a day ahead. It’s always a hit, especially with whipped cream.

Let's not yuck other peoples' yum, shall we? Maraschino cherries are traditional, almond flavored, and the color of fun.

We always cook it in a cast iron skillet, but the ones that are enamel coated are even better. Magic and oh, so good!

Hi Nancy, I have the same problem! Try this: hold down the Ctrl key (left of space bar) and press the + symbol. The screen text will increase in size.

Though Greek yogurt may be "trendy", I am much more likely to have it on hand than buttermilk. It makes a great sub for sour cream and other dairy products, plus I like to eat it!

Hi, WJ! Thank you for flagging. The headnote was incorrect: You can use the pineapple juice in place of the whole milk (not buttermilk).

This was delicious. I used a 9" cake pan as written. The cake was quite high so when I tipped it over, it rolled a bit to one side. :) Next time I think I will use a 10" cake pan to make it a bit more squat and to get more pineapple real estate on the bottom.

I haven't tried this recipe yet, but as someone who does occasionally use a box mix, my experience is that cakes from scratch are ALWAYS better! And my sisters the cake bakers would agree. It doesn't seem to complicated to me, although it may to others. Let's try it & see!

Hi! I made this today using fresh peaches in the topping. It was delicious! The cake is nice and light and the topping good, sweet but not too sweet. I added a few extra spices - ground ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon - in the topping and the cake, and used sour cream since out of yoghurt, but otherwise followed the recipe. A pleasant, relatively easy cake. Tasty! Recommend it.

Can one use fresh pineapple instead of canned? And will Amarena cherries work instead of maraschino?

If you’re going to the trouble of making your cake then for God’s sake buy a fresh pineapple. Canned is nothing like the real thing. You might need to plan ahead a few days to allow your unripe market pineapple to be ready but the result is totally worth it. Add your maraschino cherries if you wish but I prefer to leave them out. Eat it for dessert and next day for breakfast. Wonderful.