Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

My first recipe post of 2009! And it's about....... Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. Wow, revolutionary, I know! Oh well, we have a whole YEAR to cover the awesomely exciting recipes. I decided to make this cake because in our family we always have pork on New Years Day. Pineapple goes well with pork, right? At least, that's what I've heard. I prefer my pineapple fresh and COLD. I don't really dig on warm pineapple. Those pineapple covered hams... gross. Pineapple glazed pork chops... disgusting. Thankfully my dad stuck with what we've been eating for the past few years and that is his famous BBQ pork ribs! We also had our usual black-eyed peas (with a dime in the pot for good luck!), collard greens, cornbread, and macaroni and cheese. In the Baker household, we love our southern cookin'!

Lately (and happily) I've become the designated dessert person for our family dinners. I recently promised Josh that I'd make him a pineapple upside-down cake when I found out it was his favorite dessert (all this time I would've sworn it was lemon cupcakes!). What better time than now? I decided to use a recipe from South Carolina in Recipe Hall of Fame Dessert Cookbook to keep with the southern cookin' theme. To make it really "down home" I baked the cake in a 12" iron skillet! After putting the cake in the oven I read back over the recipe just to double check everything. What a perfect time to double check, right? After it's too late to fix anything! Of course, I noticed that I added an extra 1/2 cup of flour. Nice, Cassie, real nice! Oh well... what can you do now? Josh kept reassuring me that the cake wouldn't be dry because of all the juice in the pineapple slices. I was praying he was right. And he didn't let me down! The cake was phenomenal! If it hadn't been for my mom telling everyone about my flour mishap, no one would've known! It was moist, sweet, and very pineapple-y (new word for 2009). However, I'm still sticking with my "warm pineapple is gross" opinion. But everyone else absolutely loved the cake! It was gone within 15 minutes of bringing it out!

Sorry, I didn't get pictures because the kitchen was kinda hectic with mom cooking dinner while I moved around her to make the dessert. But here's the recipe anyway. It's from Recipe Hall of Fame Dessert Cookbook (which I found at TJ Maxx for just $2.99!!).

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake (from Nell Graydon's Cook Book of South Carolina)
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I omitted)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 large can (20 oz) sliced pinapple, drained
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (2 cups in my case, oops!)
1/2 cup milk (I used 1%)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (My own addition)
10-15 maraschino cherries (My own addition)

I preheated the oven to 350 F first, and stuck the skillet in the oven to get it warm enough to melt the butter. Melt 1/3 cup butter in iron skillet (12") or 9 x 13-inch baking pan. Mix nuts with brown sugar and spread over butter. Lay pineapple slices (and cherries) evenly over mixture. Cream 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup sugar. Add eggs, beating well after each. (I sifted my flour, baking powder, and salt together before this next step.) Add flour and milk, a little at a time. Then add vanilla and baking powder (if you didn't sift it into the flour already). Pour over pineapple and bake at 350 F for 30 minutes. Let stand about 5 minutes (I recommend at least 10 minutes to let the juices set up) ; then invert. (Leave the pan inverted for at least 30 seconds to let the pineapple and juice naturally release from the pan.) Serves 10-12.