Pineapple Upside-Down Cake - 5 stars

this was the first upside-down cake i've ever made, and it was SO good! wow. it had a really unique (but good!) flavor to it, which was primarily from the ground cardamom that went into the batter. mmmmm.

i made my cake in a cast iron pan, starting on the stove top, finishing in the oven. the first step was to melt butter with brown sugar in the cast iron pan, but.... i didn't have any brown sugar! i did some very quick internet research while the butter was melting, and found out that i could mix some molasses with regular sugar to create brown sugar. there are different ratios depending on whether you are trying to get to light or dark brown sugar or somewhere in the middle. i, of course, did the wrong ratio and was terrified that it'd ruin my cake.

after i melted the butter and caramelized the screwed up brown sugar, i removed the pan from the heat and arranged the pineapple slices in the bottom of the pan. i didn't read the recipe correctly here either, because i was supposed to layer them so that the bottom of one slice overlapped the top of another. oops. the only thing this affected was how the finished cake looked.



i let the pan cool while i prepared the batter. it was easy to assemble, recipe is below. it's from gourmet magazine - i found the recipe on their website. it did not include the baking temperature for the cake though! uh, that's an important piece of information! i left a comment for gourmet though, and it looks like they've since updated the recipe to include the temp - 350f. :-)

i used just shy of 3 teaspoons of cardamom in the batter, and i thought it was perfect. and as far as i could tell, the parts of the recipe that i screwed up didn't affect the finished product at all. it appears that this is quite a forgiving recipe. :-)

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Serves 8

• Active time:30 min
• Start to finish:1 1/2 hr

ADAPTED FROM RICK ELLIS

February 2000

For topping

• 1/2 medium pineapple, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cored
• 3/4 stick unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

For batter

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 to 3 teaspoons ground cardamom (see cooks' notes)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon dark rum
• 1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
• 2 tablespoons dark rum for sprinkling over cake

• Special equipment:

  a well-seasoned 10-inch cast-iron skillet

Make topping:

• Cut pineapple crosswise into 3/8-inch-thick pieces. Melt butter in skillet. Add brown sugar and simmer over moderate heat, stirring, 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Arrange pineapple on top of sugar mixture in concentric circles, overlapping pieces slightly.

Make batter:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Sift together flour, cardamom, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then gradually beat in granulated sugar. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and rum. Add half of flour mixture and beat on low speed just until blended. Beat in pineapple juice, then add remaining flour mixture, beating just until blended. (Batter may appear slightly curdled.)
• Spoon batter over pineapple topping and spread evenly. Bake cake in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cake stand in skillet 5 minutes. Invert a plate over skillet and invert cake onto plate (keeping plate and skillet firmly pressed together). Replace any pineapple stuck to bottom of skillet. Sprinkle rum over cake and cool on plate on a rack.
• Serve cake just warm or at room temperature.

Cooks’ notes:

• Some of the food editors found 3 teaspoons of cardamom to be too much, but others loved the intense flavor.
• Cake may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Courtesy of gourmet.com