Birthday Dinner pt.2 (Dessert!)

One of my Dad's favorite desserts is pineapple upside down cake. About a year or two ago I decided to buy a pineapple shaped cake pan in an effort to make his favorite cake that much more special. What I love about this cake is that it always looks/tastes like it took a while, but it is so simple!

Here's what you'll need:




1/4 cup butter or margarine (I've been using unsalted butter)

1 cup packed brown sugar (or the equivalent in Splenda brown sugar)

1 can (20oz) pineapple slices in juice, drained, juice reserved

1 box SuperMoist yellow cake mix, along with the oil and eggs called for on the cake box

Heat oven to 350

Place butter in pan and melt in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter. Arrange pineapple slices on brown sugar. I tend to cut my pineapple so that the top flares out like a real pineapple. I also skip the cherries (despite my love for them) as they don't really fit the look of the pan.


Add enough water to reserved pineapple juice to measure 1 1/4 cups. Make cake batter as directed on box, substituting pineapple juice mixture for the water. Pour batter over the pineapples.

Bake 45-50min until your toothpick comes out clean. Immediately run a knife around the side of pan to loosen the cake. Place a serving plate upside down over the pan, turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake for 5min so brown sugar goo can drizzle over cake. Remove pan and cool for 30min. Serve warm or cool. This can also be stored in the fridge for a day or two or even frozen!

If you look at some recipes for this cake online they will call for a double layer cake. Do not be confused, you only need one box of cake batter. If you happen to make this mistake then you can do what I did and make cupcakes with the extra batter!

ps- Unfortunately, there is not a finished photo of this cake as we started digging in before I could steal a shot.