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Pineapple Upside Down Cake



It’s my puppy Bodhi’s first birthday! His very favorite trick he knows to offer is paw; he has been known to spontaneously offer paw to people from whom he would like a treat. He is a very vocal puppy; in addition to barking, he makes a lot of silly noises like little play growls, whines, and howls. He is a much different dog that my german shepherd, Charlie. Charlie very rarely makes any noise at all, so Bodhi’s range of vocal expression was a surprise to me! I consider him a dog after my own heart, though, since I am constantly making noise myself when I teach or practice singing. 



In celebration of his birthday, I made him a peanut butter puppy dog cookie. He gobbled it down in a second, of course, and offered me paw, hoping for several more. I only obliged him a few times. How could I say no to that face?



For the human parents celebrating his birthday, I made a pineapple upside down cake. I confess to watching a lot of seasons of Great British Bake Off and I recently saw an episode on upside down cakes. I love pineapples and maraschino cherries and was thus inspired to make the very retro pineapple upside cake. I think it looks beautiful when turned out of its pan, yellow circles and brilliant crimson dots covering the top of fluffy vanilla cake. Bodhi was not given a slice, but he was allowed to lick the melted remains of my vanilla ice cream.



Ingredients:
Topping
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar
10 pineapple ring slices
maraschino cherries
Cake:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temp
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Pour the melted butter into a 9 by 2 inch round cake pan. Sprinkle over the brown sugar. Arrange the pineapple slices on the bottom of the pan, and place a cherry in the center of each ring and other empty, sad spaces. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined. Stir in the vanilla.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. 

Alternate adding the flour and milk to the butter mixture (1/3 flour, 1/2 milk, 1/2 remains flour, rest of milk, rest of flour) stirring to combine well each time. 

Pour the batter over the pineapple/cherry layer. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Cover the cake with foil loosely and bake another 15 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in its tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes before carefully inverting it onto its serving platter.


Let cool another 15 minutes before serving. Warm is delicious! 


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