upside-down pineapple cake

pineapple upside-down cake

from heirloom baking with the brass sisters

serves 8 slices

*recipe link

{ingredients}:

.: ½ cup butter, melted

.: 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

.: 7 slices/rings of canned pineapple from 20 oz can & 5 tbsp. reserved juice

.: 1 cup cake flour (not self rising)

.: 1 tsp. baking powder

.: ½ tsp. salt

.: 3 eggs, separated

.: 1 cup white granulated sugar

.: 1 tsp. vanilla

{directions}:

1. preheat oven to 350 F.  place rack in the middle position.

2. in a medium bowl, sift cake flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.

3. in a 9-inch cake pan, swirl butter to coat the bottom and sides of pan. sprinkle brown sugar over the bottom of the pan. using a paper towel pat dry pineapple slices on both sides and arrange in a decorative pattern on the bottom of the pan.

4. in a large bowl, stir egg yolks just to break them up and add sugar, vanilla and 5 tablespoons of reserved pineapple juice. mix well and stir in flour mixture until combined. set aside.

5. place egg whites in bowl of electric mixer fitted with whisk attachment and beat until just stiff but not dry. fold egg whites into the batter already in the large bowl until fully combined. pour batter into cake pan.

6. bake for 45-55 minutes until tester inserted into middle comes out clean. cook pan on rack for 2-3 minutes then invert onto another cooling rack. scrape any remaining bits of sugar or fruit from pan onto top of cake. serve warm or at room temperature.

after seeing an interesting episode of bobby flay's throwdown challenge on pineapple upside-down cake on the food network channel, it was the brass sisters, marilyn brass and sheila brass, pineapple cake version that i wanted to make badly. the cake looked absolutely gorgeous and better yet, it was light, fluffy, and moist. i'm glad i gave this recipe a try and it came out delicious (just the way it was being delivered on the tv show).