Pineapple Upside Down Cake is a fun retro cake recipe featuring a soft vanilla cake with a sweet and tangy caramelized pineapple topping. This cake is a classic for a reason!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Prep Time 25 minutesminutes
Cook Time 45 minutesminutes
Total Time 1 hourhour10 minutesminutes
Servings 10servings
Calories 332kcal
Author Michelle
Ingredients
For the Topping
¼cupunsalted buttermelted
½cupbrown sugar
8 to 10pineapple slices(in pineapple juice) Liquid reserved
Pour ¼ cup melted butter into an ungreased 9×2 inch pie dish or round cake pan. (Make sure the pan is 2 inches deep.)
Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter.
Blot any excess liquid off the fruit with a clean towel or paper towel. Arrange about 6-7 blotted pineapple slices and all the cherries on top of the brown sugar.
Place pan in the refrigerator for a few minutes as you prepare the cake batter to help set the topping arrangement.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.
In a separate large mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
On high speed, beat in the egg whites until combined.
Then beat in the sour cream and vanilla extract.
Add half the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Then whisk in the pineapple juice. Then finally whisk in the remaining dry ingredients, just until combined. The batter will be thick.
Remove topping from the refrigerator. Pour and spread cake batter evenly over topping.
Bake for 43-48 minutes, tenting foil on top of the cake halfway through bake time to prevent the top from over-browning before the center has a chance to fully cook. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out mostly clean. A couple moist crumbs are OK. Don’t be alarmed if your cake takes longer.
Remove cake from the oven and cool on a wire rack for just 20 minutes.
Invert the slightly cooled cake onto a cake stand or serving plate. Some of the juices from the topping will seep over the sides– that’s ok.
You can slice and serve the cake warm, but the slices will be messy. It’s best to cool the cake completely at room temperature before slicing and serving. Do not refrigerate the cake to speed up the cooling process because it could end up tasting overly dense.
Video
Notes
Make sure your baking dish is at least 2 inches or more deep to accommodate all of the batter for this cake.
Pat fruit dry to prevent your cake from being soggy and keeping the topping pretty and in place.
Storage: Cover leftover slices and store for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.