Pineapple Upside Down is easy to make from scratch and incredibly delicious. With moist yellow cake and caramelized pineapples and maraschino cherries, it’s as pretty as it is tasty!
If the sweet fire chicken recipe from a few days ago whet your appetite for all things pineapple, you’re in luck because I’ve got a Pineapple Upside Down Cake just for you! The recipe is from scratch yet is (almost) as easy to make as opening a box of cake mix.
This old-fashioned cake is soft and buttery with an intense fruit flavor and adorned with caramel-y pineapple and maraschino cherries that take it over the top. It’s a tasty and festive treat perfect for all your year-round festivities.
Background story
Although tropical in taste, pineapple upside-down cake is an American classic and has been a household favorite for almost 90 years. The style of baking cakes upside down has been around since the Middle Ages, wherein the batter is poured over sweetened fruit toppings and cooked in cast iron skillets over an open fire.
Recipes for upside-down skillet cakes first appeared in cookbooks in the 1800s but were made of other seasonal fruits. It was in the early 1900s when the Dole company, formerly Hawaiian Pineapple Co., started to market mass quantities of their canned fruit that pineapple upside-down cakes took hold and gained their iconic dessert stature.
Serving suggestions
Serve a slice (or two) warm or cold with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream or generous dollops of whipped cream for a fantastic after-meal dessert or midday snack treat.
Storage and reheating instructions
- To store, wrap the cake loosely with plastic film and refrigerate for up to 3 days. Wrap in foil and freeze for up to one month.
- To reheat from the freezer, thaw completely and warm up in the microwave or in the oven.
