Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Mmmm, I don't know about you but I LOVE anything with pineapple! This week I wanted to make something I had never made before to take to my bible study group (we actually call these "Connect" groups at church so if I mention that in the future then you will know what I am talking about).

When I was trying to decide what I should make I saw a picture of a pineapple upside down cake and thought "That's it!" I had never made one of these before and it sounded like a great summer dessert!

You will need:
1 can sliced pineapple
maraschino cherries
1/4 cup of melted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
5 tsp. baking powder
1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

The first thing you will want to do is preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9 x 13 in. baking pan. I decided to line my baking pan with wax paper to make sure the cake would not stick to the bottom since the bottom will actually become the top! (I then sprayed the wax paper with cooking spray)

Drain the pineapple slices (but keep the juice to use later on). Combine the melted butter, brown sugar and 2 tbsp. of the pineapple juice.

Place the pineapple slices on the bottom of your baking pan. Then, slice some of the cherries in half, and place them inside of the pineapple slices upside down. (You want to place the cut side of the cherries up because the cake will be flipped over when it is baked)

Next, pour the brown sugar mixture over the pineapples into the bottom of your baking pan. It should look like this:


Next, add water to the remaining pineapple juice until you have 1 1/3 cups of liquid, and set aside.

Combine the flour and baking powder, and set aside.

Cream the shortening with the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat (with electric mixer) for 1 min. Continue beating while alternating between adding the flour mixture and the remaining pineapple juice (beginning & ending with the flour mixture).

Once the batter is well mixed, pour over the pineapples:

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (mine took about 50 min.). Once you remove the cake from the oven, let it cool in the pan for 5 min. Then, take whatever platter you want to place the cake on, turn it over onto the cake pan, hold both firmly and flip the cake!

Voila! You just made a beautiful and oh so yummy pineapple upside down cake!