Dark Caramel Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Makes for a perfect dessert. Relish it with some whipped cream if you may 🙂

Fall is here now but till a few days back, at the tail end of summer, I could still spot some pineapples at my local grocery store. I got one home. Soon after that it so happened that we were to have dinner with some close friends and I decided to take dessert. I had my tropical fruit sitting right there so I thought, “How about baking the Pineapple Upside Down Cake for dessert?!’ A perfect dessert for Fall-Winter too, have it warm with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

If you are still able to find some nice pineapples at your grocery store, get one and make this delicious cake. In case you cannot but still want this cake, use canned pineapple slices. It will turn out just as good!

Ingredients you will need:

Pineapple slices (freshly cut from half a pineapple)
2 Strawberries, cut into tiny bits
½ cup brown raw cane sugar (turbinado) or granulated brown sugar
4 tbsp butter
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 ½ cups (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ – 1 cup granulated (castor) sugar (depends on how sweet you want to cake)
2 eggs, separate egg yolks from whites
1 ½ cups milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract or vanilla essence
Strawberries, for garnishing (optional)

Method for baking:

1) Preheat oven to 350 F or about 180 C. Prepare a cake pan by greasing it with butter or a nonstick vegetable oil cooking spray. (I used a 9 inch round cake pan. Any other shape will work.). Separate egg yolks from the whites and keep aside.

2) In a saucepan on medium heat, put the brown raw cane sugar and the butter. Stir the butter lightly till it melts. Then swirl the pan (don’t stir) and let the butter and sugar combine, melt and make a nice thick caramel. When you see bubbles in the pan edges and the consistency looks dark brown and smooth, turn off the heat. This should take 4-7 mins.

3) Pour this mixture evenly into the cake pan, swirl to spread it out and cover the entire base. Now place pineapple slices closely to one another (they tend to shrink a bit once baked). Then place strawberries or maraschino cherries. Keep aside.

4) Now in a mixing bowl, mix butter and sugar with a handheld or stand mixer (or simply manually!). Add egg yolks and vanilla extract one by one and mix well till smooth and creamy.

5) To this add the flour and keep mixing simultaneously. If it gets very dry and stiff, add the milk little by little to smoothen it out. Mix well till batter is smooth and creamy.

6)Whisk the egg white in separate bowl till frothy with stiff peaks. Now add the whisked egg whites to this. Mix well and you will see the entire cake batter now looks fluffy and will make a lighter cake.

7) Put this into the oven for 40-50 mins (depending on your oven). Insert a toothpick, if it comes out clean, it’s done. Allow it to cool in pan for about 10 mins or so. Bring this out on a cake stand or serving plate with pineapple side on top. Serve it warm.