Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Brown Sugar Kitchen

I've never been a pineapple upside down cake person. My family didn't make it, my husband's family doesn't make it, and it's never been something I just decided to make. BUT! I had a fresh pineapple on hand and wanted to make a dessert, so when I found this in Brown Sugar Kitchen I just had to try it. I'm so glad I did!

The whole family liked this one, and the recipe can't be much easier. (Don't let cutting up a fresh pineapple scare you, but you can also use canned rings if it does.) I love a cake that you can bake up in one pan and not have to fuss with icing afterward! Don't get me wrong, I also love frosting, but sometimes* I am lazy. And it turns out awfully pretty, too, though next time I might add the iconic maraschino cherries for a bit of color.

* quite often

I found this recipe on the google preview of the book: https://books.google.com/books?id=vAVpAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT183&lpg=PT183&dq=tanya+holland+pineapple+upside+down+cake&source=bl&ots=rZfyZjJ0DP&sig=ACfU3U15Da1sZXEacL2BxVhXlrgTzZjdWQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj7usHyzIjxAhXsElkFHXr0DI4Q6AEwGXoECBcQAw#v=onepage&q=tanya%20holland%20pineapple%20upside%20down%20cake&f=false

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:05]: hello
[00:05]: and welcome to cooking the books with
[00:07]: heather today we're going to be making a
[00:09]: pineapple upside down cake
[00:11]: from brown sugar kitchen by tanya
[00:13]: holland um
[00:15]: i let my kids pick this recipe and we
[00:18]: happen to have
[00:19]: everything that we need including a
[00:22]: fresh pineapple
[00:23]: um this looks pretty ripe um
[00:27]: we got from our produce box i was like
[00:28]: oh that's perfect we can use up the
[00:30]: pineapple that i haven't
[00:31]: managed to cut up for you this week they
[00:34]: both they all
[00:35]: love pineapple so
[00:38]: that's what i'm going to do first but i
[00:40]: want to tell you to tell you first
[00:42]: i have uh my nine inch cake pan
[00:46]: hopefully i don't doesn't need to be too
[00:48]: deep because this is the deepest one i
[00:49]: have that's not a spring form
[00:51]: it is buttered and floured i think i've
[00:53]: done that before
[00:55]: i think maybe with the apple bundt cake
[00:59]: i'll link that above if you want to go
[01:02]: see that
[01:04]: also from brown sugar kitchen my oven
[01:07]: is preheated to 350 degrees
[01:10]: fahrenheit and um so the first thing i'm
[01:14]: going to do is get my pineapple ready
[01:16]: this is looks kind of daunting
[01:19]: but it's really not that bad not that
[01:21]: hard and we need this to be
[01:24]: what did she say peeled cord and cut
[01:26]: into
[01:27]: one quarter inch rings or
[01:31]: half moon so we'll see how we can fit it
[01:33]: in the pan when it gets to that time but
[01:35]: the first thing i'm going to do is
[01:37]: cut it up peel it and so first
[01:41]: cut off the top
[01:45]: and the bottom
[01:49]: might be a little over ripe but i'm sure
[01:52]: it will be fine
[01:55]: you can cut off more if need be
[01:59]: all right and then i'm just going to
[02:01]: sort of slice
[02:03]: down the sides to get
[02:06]: all of this
[02:09]: skin peel
[02:13]: whatever you call it that's really
[02:14]: really
[02:17]: prickly and i've got this to
[02:20]: put it all in
[02:25]: i might have to end up doing half moons
[02:28]: we'll see
[02:29]: because this is a little bit
[02:33]: over ripe in places maybe bruised i
[02:35]: don't know
[02:36]: anyway so that
[02:39]: the peel is mostly gone and then if you
[02:42]: happen to see
[02:43]: little places where you have bits that
[02:45]: you don't want
[02:47]: in your cake
[02:51]: those look like seeds that's interesting
[02:53]: i don't think i'd ever noticed that
[02:54]: there are seeds in there before
[02:57]: it makes sense but because it is a fruit
[03:02]: but uh yeah i don't think i've ever
[03:03]: noticed
[03:05]: these little bitty seeds before
[03:08]: interesting
[03:09]: i know that you can plant
[03:13]: this part people have done that and then
[03:15]: it will grow
[03:17]: but seeds
[03:20]: who knew all right so
[03:23]: because we want pretty rings if we can
[03:27]: make that happen
[03:28]: i'm going to try to just slice it
[03:34]: you're supposed to be quarter inch thick
[03:38]: i don't know how i'm doing on that front
[03:41]: because
[03:42]: i think i'm a little wide but that's all
[03:45]: right
[03:47]: we don't need all of this obviously for
[03:50]: one layer of pineapple in that pan
[03:52]: it will not take all of these
[03:56]: all of this pineapple so we can just eat
[03:58]: the rest and the kids will love that
[04:02]: all right so i'm gonna
[04:06]: take a few of the ones in the middle
[04:08]: that are sort of the prettiest and the
[04:09]: nicest
[04:10]: i'm gonna stack these up and i don't
[04:12]: have anything specifically that's meant
[04:14]: to core
[04:16]: a pineapple they do make sort of a long
[04:18]: tool that
[04:19]: goes through it and takes the whole core
[04:21]: out at once i don't have that
[04:23]: and it doesn't matter when you don't
[04:25]: want them to be pretty rings you can
[04:26]: just
[04:26]: cut them off of the core and that's what
[04:28]: i usually do so i don't have a corer
[04:30]: but i do have this little set of
[04:33]: different size
[04:34]: circle cutters and i thought the
[04:37]: smallest size would be perfect
[04:39]: i'm probably gonna have to do like one
[04:42]: slice at a time yeah that looks good
[04:45]: so these are pretty sharp but there we
[04:49]: go
[04:53]: here we go and there we have a
[04:57]: kind of ring um of
[05:00]: pineapple and i'm going to make as many
[05:02]: as i think i'm going to need and
[05:04]: we'll see what we can do to make them
[05:06]: fit when it comes to that time but we're
[05:09]: not
[05:09]: there yet i'm going to set this aside
[05:12]: and set up for the rest of this recipe
[05:16]: and clean up just a little bit
[05:18]: one second before i get out my stand
[05:21]: mixer
[05:22]: the first the other thing we need to do
[05:24]: first
[05:25]: is we make a brown sugar mixture to go
[05:29]: in the bottom
[05:30]: of this pan and so i have
[05:33]: some brown sugar and some of the
[05:36]: unsalted butter for this recipe
[05:40]: and i'm not going to show you this
[05:42]: because really it's
[05:45]: boring but what we're going to do is to
[05:50]: melt this on low heat on the stove top
[05:54]: until it's all dissolved and
[05:57]: the sugar is dissolved and the butter is
[05:58]: melted so we're not looking for any
[06:00]: particular
[06:02]: uh hard crack or you know
[06:05]: caramelization we're just looking for
[06:08]: melted and dissolved
[06:09]: so i'm going to get that started brown
[06:12]: sugar is not yet
[06:13]: melted so i'm going to keep an eye on
[06:15]: that but while that's happening we're
[06:16]: going to
[06:17]: sift together a few ingredients i'm just
[06:20]: going to whisk it because that's what i
[06:22]: do instead of sifting
[06:23]: we have some all-purpose flour
[06:28]: and then we need to put in some salt and
[06:29]: some baking powder
[06:31]: so i'm going to measure that out as i do
[06:34]: it because i have not pre-measured them
[06:42]: this is kosher salt
[06:46]: some bacon i need to get more
[06:50]: because it looks like i'm running out
[07:04]: [Music]
[07:06]: there we go
[07:09]: so instead of getting my sifter out um
[07:12]: i'm just going to whisk this that will
[07:14]: help
[07:14]: mix it all up and break up any lumps
[07:17]: that you might have in
[07:18]: the flour um
[07:21]: it's generally perfectly fine for most
[07:25]: uh sifting applications there we go
[07:29]: now that's all mixed together so that is
[07:31]: good i'm gonna set that aside
[07:33]: and um i have my stand mixer obviously
[07:36]: with the paddle attachment and we're
[07:38]: gonna put in
[07:39]: um the rest of our butter this is
[07:41]: softened
[07:42]: uh i did see a tip on
[07:46]: i think it was on youtube from a baker
[07:49]: who said you don't really
[07:50]: need pre-softened butter it just will
[07:52]: take
[07:53]: your take you longer in the mixer
[07:55]: especially if you're using a stand mixer
[07:57]: it'll take you longer to bring it to
[08:00]: cream
[08:01]: the the butter if that's the gold here
[08:04]: but you don't really need softened
[08:05]: butter now i
[08:08]: you just scraped off the rest of the
[08:10]: butter onto the paddle just
[08:12]: because i do that but you can use those
[08:14]: another little tip
[08:16]: you can use the butter wrappers to
[08:18]: butter and this
[08:19]: the pan before you flour it there's
[08:21]: usually plenty of butter
[08:23]: especially with a full stick to butter
[08:25]: one of those pans
[08:27]: butter is almost melted not quite i've
[08:30]: got on pretty low heat so
[08:31]: my butter's in here and i'm going to add
[08:34]: uh
[08:36]: granulated sugar and we're going to
[08:37]: cream this like i said
[08:40]: just until it's light and fluffy and all
[08:42]: combined
[08:45]: okay so she does say this this will take
[08:47]: about five minutes and that you should
[08:49]: stop at least twice
[08:51]: to scrape down the sides as we always do
[08:54]: when we use the mixer
[08:58]: especially for something like a cake
[09:02]: [Applause]
[09:06]: actually while that is while i've got
[09:09]: this
[09:10]: stopped for a second i'm gonna go ahead
[09:13]: and put my brown sugar
[09:14]: into the into the pan
[09:17]: [Music]
[09:19]: because as you can see
[09:23]: butter's melted brown sugar is all
[09:25]: dissolved and we're just going to pour
[09:27]: this
[09:28]: into our prepared pan and spread it
[09:32]: around into a thin layer if we need to
[09:35]: if it doesn't do that all by itself
[09:40]: which it may or may not so we just want
[09:43]: to make sure this gets sort of
[09:44]: covers the bottom in a thin even layer
[09:48]: instead of spreading it with a spatula
[09:51]: i'm just going to
[09:52]: tilt my pan
[09:56]: and allow the sort of fluid dynamics to
[10:01]: work as it's still pretty warm there we
[10:04]: go
[10:06]: and while this is happening i'm going to
[10:09]: get my pineapple slices and arrange them
[10:14]: however i like on the bottom here
[10:16]: because upside down cake
[10:18]: we're going to turn it upside down and
[10:20]: this is going to be the pretty
[10:21]: presentation
[10:22]: of it so you probably won't hear me but
[10:25]: you'll
[10:26]: maybe watch me do this while because
[10:28]: this could be loud
[10:44]: see our butter and sugar are very light
[10:47]: in color
[10:48]: and it looks more like um the texture is
[10:52]: more like a frosting
[10:53]: than than the original um texture
[10:58]: and so we're just about there now
[11:01]: and i'm going to be adding my eggs
[11:04]: i need one just yolk
[11:08]: and so i will prop and we're supposed to
[11:10]: do this one at a time i'll probably add
[11:12]: the yolk first as long as my
[11:14]: egg uh my first egg cooperates
[11:18]: but i'm gonna be actually
[11:21]: we'll see yeah i'm gonna add the yolk
[11:23]: first as long as my first egg cooperates
[11:25]: and i can get the yolk separated if not
[11:28]: we'll put the whole leg in
[11:34]: and you should stop and stir
[11:37]: and make sure you've got it all
[11:39]: incorporated in between
[11:40]: each egg
[11:47]: [Music]
[12:04]: [Music]
[12:07]: all of my eggs are in and i'm now going
[12:09]: to just
[12:10]: scrape it down for the well the last
[12:13]: time for the eggs
[12:16]: and i'm going to add i believe my
[12:17]: vanilla is next
[12:20]: yep
[12:23]: so this is just a good vanilla extract
[12:29]: [Music]
[12:31]: so i'm just going to mix this until
[12:32]: combined and then we're going to put it
[12:34]: on low
[12:42]: okay now that the vanilla's combined
[12:46]: just
[12:46]: i didn't run it very long at all um
[12:49]: we're gonna
[12:50]: put the mixer on low and we're going to
[12:52]: alternate
[12:53]: um our flour mixture
[12:56]: and buttermilk a third each time
[13:00]: and beginning beginning and
[13:04]: ending with the flour so
[13:10]: half the flour
[13:11]: [Music]
[13:13]: in three additions so beginning and
[13:16]: ending with flour so half the flour all
[13:18]: of the buttermilk half the flour
[13:20]: we'll try it
[13:23]: [Music]
[13:32]: before i call this done i'm just going
[13:34]: to
[13:35]: make sure i get everything into
[13:38]: my batter because it tends to kind of
[13:40]: stick to the sides and stick to the top
[13:42]: of the
[13:44]: the paddle and make sure i get
[13:47]: all of my buttermilk in here
[13:54]: and there we go and stir this just stir
[13:57]: this for a little bit until everything
[13:59]: looks combined
[14:04]: looks good to me and so now we're going
[14:07]: to scrape this
[14:09]: over our pineapple and
[14:12]: brown sugar mixture and
[14:15]: spread it into an even layer okay so i'm
[14:19]: gonna be
[14:21]: i'm a little concerned about um
[14:25]: messing up my pretty pineapple but
[14:28]: i'm gonna so i'm just kind of dollop it
[14:30]: around
[14:33]: and then spread it together
[14:37]: although they are pretty close to each
[14:39]: other so i really
[14:40]: shouldn't uh be able to move those
[14:43]: around all that much
[15:21]: now here i am hoping that this will not
[15:24]: overflow the cake pan that i have
[15:28]: prepared too much
[15:30]: seems pretty full
[15:34]: but it does not
[15:38]: say a pretty you need a particularly
[15:40]: deep one
[15:41]: i don't know we'll see i've never made a
[15:44]: pineapple upside down cake before so
[15:47]: this is all new for me
[15:51]: so this goes into my 350 degree oven
[15:54]: for 50 to 55 minutes
[15:58]: and use the toothpick test in the center
[16:00]: and make sure it comes out
[16:02]: clean
[16:05]: so after that we're gonna let it cool
[16:08]: for about 20 minutes and then we'll be
[16:10]: back to show you what it looks like
[16:12]: and how well i do flipping it upside
[16:15]: down
[16:17]: so we'll be back in about an hour hour
[16:19]: and a half
[16:20]: all right see then our
[16:24]: cake baked my pineapple upside down cake
[16:26]: baked for
[16:28]: i checked it at 50 minutes wasn't quite
[16:29]: done 55 minutes looked
[16:31]: perfect and it smells so good it smells
[16:34]: like vanilla and deliciousness
[16:37]: so now is the
[16:40]: the moment of truth where we make our
[16:42]: cake upside down
[16:44]: it's been cooling for about 20 minutes
[16:47]: it is
[16:47]: still pretty warm
[16:51]: i think i'll be okay with just my
[16:53]: fingertips without um
[16:55]: hot pads but so we're supposed to
[16:58]: uh make sure we loosen the sides using a
[17:03]: thin knife the tip of a thin sharp knife
[17:06]: so
[17:07]: that's what i'm going to do now
[17:11]: which is fine it didn't overflow that
[17:13]: was great
[17:15]: i do have a few places over here where
[17:19]: it's
[17:20]: you know over the edge i'm going to try
[17:22]: not to cut that
[17:25]: so i'm going to move this out of the way
[17:27]: i'm going to put this here and we're
[17:28]: going to
[17:30]: turn it over all right
[17:34]: so this is the biggest
[17:37]: plate i have she says to use a um
[17:40]: flat serving plate this is the best i
[17:42]: got right now so
[17:46]: it's pretty warm
[17:54]: okay looks pretty good
[17:58]: and now did it come out it did did all
[18:01]: of our fruit come out
[18:04]: it almost almost no it did that just
[18:07]: moved a little bit
[18:08]: so we'll place it back she says to
[18:10]: replace any
[18:11]: of the fruit that
[18:15]: stayed in the pan mine didn't
[18:17]: necessarily stay in the pan
[18:19]: but yay
[18:23]: we have our pineapple upside down cake
[18:26]: now
[18:26]: the hard part is we have to let this
[18:29]: cool completely before we eat it
[18:32]: and um she says to if you want to keep
[18:36]: it
[18:37]: if you want to make it ahead it's really
[18:39]: best served the day it's made
[18:41]: if you have leftovers you can wrap them
[18:43]: with plastic wrap or put them in an
[18:45]: airtight container
[18:47]: and they'll keep for only about a day at
[18:49]: room temperature it's pretty moist and
[18:51]: there's the whole fruit
[18:52]: thing i would definitely probably put
[18:55]: this in the refrigerator if you want to
[18:56]: keep it for more than a day
[18:58]: and she says three days in the
[18:59]: refrigerator it'll probably keep longer
[19:02]: than that honestly but
[19:04]: three days would be safe so
[19:08]: we'll be back real soon and let you know
[19:10]: exactly what we think of it if we love
[19:12]: it if we don't
[19:14]: but i'm really happy that it turned out
[19:18]: seeing a few
[19:26]: on this episode of cooking the books
[19:27]: with heather you watched me make
[19:29]: pineapple upside down cake from uh brown
[19:32]: sugar kitchen
[19:33]: tonya holland's cookbook and
[19:36]: i have to say everybody liked this cake
[19:39]: we are not big
[19:40]: um pineapple upside down cake
[19:43]: people we don't it's not a common thing
[19:46]: we eat here
[19:47]: so it was unusual for us even though we
[19:49]: really do like pineapple
[19:50]: um so i'd never made one before but it
[19:53]: was
[19:54]: pretty easy um i like that it's
[19:57]: relatively easy to make it kind of
[19:59]: pretty because you sort of layer things
[20:00]: in the bottom and then put the cake on
[20:02]: top
[20:03]: uh you don't really need
[20:06]: anything special she uses a stand mixer
[20:10]: or she says to use a stand mixer you
[20:11]: could definitely use
[20:12]: a hand mixer instead
[20:16]: or just use a spoon and probably beat it
[20:19]: for a really long time
[20:20]: to cream that butter um
[20:24]: but yeah it's pretty easy all the
[20:25]: ingredients are relatively easy
[20:28]: cutting a pineapple might be the hardest
[20:31]: part
[20:32]: but of course you could use canned
[20:33]: pineapple
[20:36]: instead but yeah we really liked it
[20:40]: if you like pineapple upside down cake
[20:42]: i'd love to hear what you
[20:43]: what you think about this one because i
[20:46]: really can't tell you whether it's
[20:47]: better or worse
[20:48]: than other ones but it was really really
[20:50]: good and uh
[20:51]: it lasted in the refrigerator for a
[20:53]: while we would bring it back up to room
[20:55]: temperature
[20:56]: um because it's pretty sweet so couldn't
[20:59]: eat a huge piece
[21:00]: but it but it lasted for a while and we
[21:03]: ate it across
[21:04]: i don't know several days um but the
[21:07]: kids asked for it so
[21:09]: that's that's good uh if you enjoyed
[21:12]: watching me make this please give me a
[21:14]: thumbs up
[21:15]: hit the subscribe button and come back
[21:17]: and watch me make something else next
[21:23]: week