Pineapple Upside Down Cake For Easter Day 2024:- This pineapple upside down cake is soft and buttery, and the pineapple and cherries on top are caramelised brown sugar. Its juices seep into the cake and make it taste and feel even better. This retro cake is a standard favourite that can be made any time of the year with canned pineapple and maraschino cherries. It is served upside down.
Pineapple Upside Down Cake For Easter Day 2024
I love learning new things in the kitchen, and I work hard all the time to get better. When I keep practicing, I get the chance to give you the best food I can. This post is very interesting!
Improved Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe – Read the Difference
I developed and published a pineapple upside down cake recipe several years ago. It’s certainly loved by many, but the cake is prone to overflowing because there’s quite a lot of batter. Additionally, it can taste overly wet and the instructions were never written very clearly. As a cookbook author and baker, I’ve certainly improved my craft over the years!
The recipe below for my better pineapple upside down cake is much softer than the first one I made. If you use cake flour instead of all-purpose flour, all white sugar instead of brown sugar and white sugar, and egg whites instead of melted butter, the texture will be very different. It was based on my white cake. My new cake batter recipe doesn’t make as much, so we don’t have to worry about it being too much.
The pineapple cherry topping remains the same. You don’t mess with perfection.
- Old Cake Recipe (in notes below): Overly heavy, wet, overflowed
- New Cake Recipe (below): Softer, pleasantly moist, reduced amount of batter
We’re using the same ingredients in my updated cake batter just in different forms, ratios, and amounts. Baking is truly a science and I’m happy to continue to deliver you well tested and improved recipes!
Ingredients
Topping
- 1/4 cup (60g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 8–10 pineapple slices (see note)
- 15–20 maraschino cherries (see note)
Cake
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
2 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/3 cup (80g) sour cream, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup (60ml) pineapple juice, at room temperature (use leftover from can)
2 Tablespoons (30ml) milk, at room temperature
See Also: Brown Butter Coconut Pecan Muffins Recipe
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
- Prepare topping first: Put 1/4 cup of melted butter into a 9-by-2-inch pie dish or round cake pan that hasn’t been oiled. The pan should be 2 inches deep. This pie dish is great; it’s 1.8 inches deep, and I never have to worry about it overflowing. Spread the brown sugar out over the butter. Use a clean towel or paper towel to soak up any extra liquid on the fruit. (When the cake is turned upside down, the filling or cake may leak over the sides if the fruit is too wet.) Put 6-7 pineapple slices that have been blotched and all of the cherries on top of the brown sugar. I also like to cut three pineapple rings in half and place them around the pan’s edges. See my picture and movie above to get an idea of how the toppings are arranged. While you make the cake batter, put the pan in the fridge for a few minutes. This helps to “set” the order of the topping.
- Make the cake batter: Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and beat on high speed until creamed together, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. On high speed, beat in the egg whites until combined, then beat in the sour cream and vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Turn the mixer onto low speed and as the mixer runs, slowly pour in the pineapple juice and milk. Beat on low speed just until all of the ingredients are combined. Do not over-mix. You may need to whisk it all by hand to make sure there are no lumps at the bottom of the bowl. The batter will be slightly thick.
- Remove topping from the refrigerator. Pour and spread cake batter evenly over topping.
- Bake for 43-48 minutes, tenting foil on top of the cake halfway through bake time to prevent the top from over-browning before the center has a chance to fully cook. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out mostly clean—a couple moist crumbs are OK. Don’t be alarmed if your cake takes longer or if the cake rises up and sticks to the foil. (We serve the cake upside down anyway!)
- Remove cake from the oven and cool on a wire rack for just 20 minutes. Invert the slightly cooled cake onto a cake stand or serving plate. Some of the juices from the topping will seep over the sides—that’s ok. You can slice and serve the cake warm, but the slices will be messy. I find it’s best to cool the cake completely at room temperature before slicing and serving. Do not refrigerate the cake to speed up the cooling process because it could end up tasting overly dense.
- Cover leftover slices and store for up to 3 days in the refrigerator or 3 months in the freezer. Thaw at room temperature. I don’t recommend freezing the cake as a whole because the topping arrangement doesn’t thaw very nicely. See make ahead instructions below.