My mom loved this cake and made it every other month or so when I was growing up. Mom used butter and brown sugar freely, it was so darn tasty the way she made it. We had a large family, therefor smaller portions on our plate, so we weren’t worried about such things as sugar or cholesterol. At our house, dessert was for Sundays, after dinner. Often as not, Jell-O was the dessert. Mom didn’t use nuts in her cake, but I love the addition of Pecans in the cake. She loved maraschino cherries and always used them if she had them on hand. I like to make my cake in a cast iron skillet, I think it makes a nice upside down cake, but a cake pan will do just fine. You may certainly make a cake from scratch. I was brought up on boxed cake mix and so cake from scratch seems grainy and dry to me. Maybe I just have not made a good cake from scratch yet.
You can also use muffin tin and make upside down cupcakes.
Ingredients:
1 cake mix
1 Tb flour for altitude change
1-2 eggs and liquid as called for in mix, be sure to allow for altitude as described on box.
I use 2 eggs in my cake mixes, Just my way of doing it, it isn’t really necessary for a good cake.
Sauce:
5 Tb butter (1/2 stick plus 1 Tb).
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar (light if you have it)
1 Pinch (1/16 tsp) Cinnamon
1 20-ounce can pineapple slices, with juice reserved.
You will need 1 C Mixture of Water & Pineapple Juice drained from canned slices.
Optional:
1 jar (6 oz) maraschino cherries without stems, drained
¼ C Walnuts or Pecans
½ tsp. fresh lime juice for cake mix
¼ C shredded cocoanut
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a cast iron skillet melt butter remove from heat, (or in a13x9-inch pan, melt butter in oven).
Swirl pan so butter comes up the sides of the skillet or pan.
Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter in the bottom of the pan.
Arrange pineapple slices on the brown sugar.
Place cherry in center of each pineapple slice if using.
Place nuts, if using, around the top of this layer, and set aside.
Add enough water to reserved pineapple juice to measure 1 cup.
Make cake batter as directed on box, substituting pineapple juice mixture for the water and adding 1 Tb flour to the batter.
Check for altitude option as described on cake mix box.
Pour batter over pineapple in pan.
Bake 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Immediately run knife around side of pan to loosen cake.
Let rest for 5 minutes.
Place heatproof serving plate upside down onto pan, turn plate and pan over at the same time (keeping plate and skillet or pan firmly pressed together). If you prefer, you can serve it right out of the pan, it just doesn’t look as pretty, but certainly tastes the same.
Leave pan over cake 5 minutes so brown sugar syrup can drizzle over the cake, then remove pan.
Cool 30 minutes before serving.