Pineapple Vanilla Upside Down Cake
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
For the Caramelized Pineapple:
- 4 tablespoon, 2 ounces or 1/2 stick of butter
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into thick wedges
For the Cake Batter:
- 1 cup of AP or pastry flour
- 1/2 cup fine cornmeal
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) butter, gently melted
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preheat your oven to 400°.
Method
For the Caramelized Pineapple:
- Gently melt the butter in a 12” cast iron skillet over medium heat.
- Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the melted butter and continue heating as it melts into a bubbling brown syrup. Don’t stir the pan but as the steam disappears and it begins to bubble and brown gently swirl it for even cooking.
- Turn off the heat.
- Add the pineapple wedges, in a radial pattern, jamming them all in to make them fit. Turn the heat back to medium low.
- Continue cooking until the pineapple lightly browns. A medium low to medium heat will work best, a slow patient browning heat.
- This step takes 15 to 20 minutes but it’s worth it!
- Flip pineapple and gently brown the other side.
For the Cake Batter:
- Dry and wet. Whisk the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder and salt together.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, milk, eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet to the dry and combine until smooth. You may use your stand mixer or just a hand whisk and a wooden spoon.
- Pour the batter over the caramelized pineapple in the pan and bake for 18-20 minutes.
- Cool on the counter for 10 minutes or so then carefully invert onto a plate.
- Try using oven mitts to tightly place the plate on the edges of the skillet then clamp and flip it over in one fluid motion. It works!