pineapple upside down cake

I made a pear-corn cake last week in my cast-iron skillet (I should make a post on that, actually...), and received suggestions about making pineapple upside down cake. The recipe I used  for the pear cake mentioned using pineapples, but I'll be honest with you, I was less than impressed with the results the first time around and was hesitant to replicate it with another fruit.

Serious Eats had a pineapple upside down skillet cake  recipe as well, but the cake looked less than appealing, so I looked for an alternate. I stumbled onto this recipe that looked gorgeous, and the ingredients looked reasonable, so I gave it a shot.

I was intrigued by the use of yogurt in the recipe. It reminded me of using sour cream, for some reason, which excites me. Instead of using plain yogurt, I opted for pina colada, it was cheap for a four-pack, even though I am now stuck with three and a half packs of tropical yogurt. I'll make the fella eat it, or make the kid a smoothie or something with it.

(Editor's note: the mere mention of using that yogurt got me thinking of all the applesauce I made last night for my Big Jewish Feast I still need to post, and spent ten minutes or so finding recipes on bread loaves that use my banana and pumpkin and applesauce up. Got a couple great ideas, will post about them when I make them.)

I was a little nervous making substitutions with this recipe -- specifically using fruit in place of butter -- but I've been making cookies all week and it's been nothing but eggs and butter and sugar and flour, and I wanted something a little lighter than that. Besides, I wanted this cake to really smack me in the mouth with pineapple, so using crushed pineapple in place of butter offered me this opportunity. The results were fantastic, too!

I was watching my homies play video games last week, and mentioned my plan to make these cakes the following day. "Oh, I'm gonna make that, too!" says one friend. "See, you say that," says another, "but here's the thing: she will actually make it." And I did. And he has not. Yet insisted I use butter, as the self-appointed authority on Southern cuisine. That's like saying I can't make a decent stir fry because I'm not Asian! Racists. Make the cake, buddy!

I started this by buying myself a jumbo muffin tin. I have wanted one of these for SO LONG, and it's the holidays, and Fish said TREAT YO SELF, so god damn if I didn't do just that. Also got a huge cast iron and 12-qt stock pot (which I made broth in, and was so tickled by it), and a bunch of baking sheets and sauce pans from the thrift store. Get this: the used cookware all matched! Cook's Essentials, or something. I was so happy! My silver saucepans look so good hanging off the same hook over my sink, nested within each other. I love it.

Preheat your oven to 350F. I have an older oven, so I always decrease the temp by 25 degrees. You work so hard to make everything right, burning it is like a kick in the teeth. And you can't fix it! It sucks so much! I start with overgreasing my muffin tin. I will be god damned if these beauties stick to the sides, i'm not having it, not this time!

Once the pan is well lubed up, I move on to the syrupy topping, melted butter mixed with brown sugar until all runny, them poured into each muffin cup. I place a pineapple on this, then make the batter and pour it over and bake for a half hour or so, checking a cake with a knife until it comes out clean.

The batter is a bit dense, more bread pudding than cake, really. Flour, baking powder and soda, a little salt, crushed pineapple instead of a stick of butter, 3:1 brown to white sugar, an egg, a little yogurt and milk and juice reserved from the can of pineapple rings, and a little vanilla. My KitchenAid makes quick work of mixing, but this is a thin batter, and can be easily hand-whisked.

Each cake came out perfectly when I inverted the pan onto a baking sheet, with a little pool of caramel glaze seeping out of each one like a sweet syrup puddle. I may have underbaked, as the edges of some cakes were starting to brown and I had a mild panic attack and couldn't bake them any further in good conscience and experience. My pear skillet cake had burnt caramel topping, it was noticeable and more than offputting. Moreso than the corn, if you can believe it. God, I hate corn. So much, dude. Pineapple and yogurt cake can kick it all day, though.

These are absolutely incredible, definitely a keeper of a recipe. I'll try this same thing in my skillet next time with butter and see if I can detect any difference in prep methods. Something about a skillet cake really excites me! I feel a comparable thrill about my jumbo muffin tin. This leads to using both, which leads to too much cake, which is a phrase that makes little sense in English, right? Definitely try these.