Mom's Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Fabulously Retro Cake

Recipe from Mom’s Best Desserts

Among my earliest childhood memories are the wonderful desserts that my long-gone mother made.  It’s hard to find some of these recipes nowadays. How lucky I was to find Mom’s Best Desserts, a treasure trove of retro recipes, at the library. After bookmarking 30 pages, I realized that I knew the second author, Fran Raboff. A fantastic baker and chef, Fran used to bring me homemade treats years ago when she studied sculpture in the community college art department where I worked. “This is for you, not the students,” she would say. Knowing her dessert expertise, I immediately bought the book. This cake tastes just like my mom’s.

Spooning Batter over Topping

Although Fran and co-author Andrea Chesman use a round skillet or pie pan, my mom used a square pan, which facilitates slicing. This is a flattish cake that’s all about the buttery-sugary pineapple topping. The recipe indicates that one serving equals one whole pineapple ring. Though that seems like a lot of cake, it’s tricky to slice the pineapple rings in half, and I noticed that most people who did so at a recent potluck went back for the second half. So I recommend following the authors’ advice. If you need to bake two cakes to accommodate everyone, bake two in succession rather than doubling the recipe.

A word about organic, natural canned pineapple: Although it seems like a great idea, the slices are inconsistent in thickness and circumference, and the holes are often off-center. That does not work for this cake. Instead, use the mass-produced, consistent product that has been around for generations. The authors recommend using only pecans or walnuts, not the usual maraschino cherries. However, since this cake is far from a health food, I recommend honoring tradition by placing the neon-red maraschinos in the center of each pineapple ring. Even in health-conscious Santa Cruz, potluck participants who cut the pineapple rings to make half-slices consistently took the cherries too.

Although this cake is plenty delicious without, my mom always served pineapple upside-down cake with whipped cream. I agree that its creaminess compliments the sweet topping. Given the topping’s high butter content, a canned light whipped cream is a good (and easy) alternative to hand-whipped heavy cream. Enjoy, and Happy Mothers’ Day!

How To Lay Down the Topping

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

serves 9

1 – 20 oz. can pineapple rings (reserve juice)

maraschino cherries (optional)

4 tbsp. butter

2/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

12 – 21 pecan halves

1½ cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour

1½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. ground ginger

¼ tsp. salt

6 tbsp. butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2/3 cup pineapple juice, reserved from pineapple

whipped cream, optional topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Make topping:

Drain pineapple rings, reserving 2/3 cup of juice for cake.

Melt butter in 9-inch square pan placed in preheating oven (about 3 minutes, watch pan carefully). Remove from oven and distribute butter evenly in pan. Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar and pat down lightly.  

Arrange 9 pineapple slices over brown sugar. Slice 5 maraschino cherries in half, blot dry with paper towel, and place upside-down in center of each pineapple ring. Fill in spaces between pineapple slices with upside-down pecans. You may use pecan halves in the middle of pineapple rings instead of cherries if you prefer. Set aside.

Make cake:

Sift together flour, baking powder, ginger, and salt in small mixing bowl. Set aside.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.

On low speed, mix in set-aside dry ingredients alternatively with pineapple juice, using 1/3 of each at a time, and scraping down bowl between additions. Just mix together until batter is smooth and blended, don’t over-mix.  Spoon batter over pineapple topping in pan and even out with spatula.

Bake and serve:

Bake for 40 – 45 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and set on cooling rack. Cool for 5 minutes. Loosen cake around edges with spatula, then invert onto serving platter. Serve warm or cooled, topped with whipped cream.

Before the Potluck: One of Two Cakes

After The Potluck: First Cake Gone, Second Almost Gone!