Pineapple Upside Down Cake Singles

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Pineapple Upside Down Cake is one of the pleasures of life! That said, there are any number of variations on this classic cake. There is some debate about when this cake was created, but it seems to have appeared in printed recipes as early as the mid-1920's when pineapple was considered fairly exotic in most American households!

In making the cake this time, the idea was to create individual cakes that would be the perfect dessert serving. This was accomplished by using a large muffin tin - well, two actually - as the recipe makes 10 single pineapple upside down cakes. And they are as delicious as they are beautiful!

1 box of pineapple cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 can pineapple slices (20oz) packed in pineapple juice (juice reserved)
1 cup pineapple juice and water (contents of can plus enough water to make 1 cup)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 stick of unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup brown sugar (loosely packed - you won't need all of it)
19 maraschino cherries

You will need two large muffin tins (each one containing six wells)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter in small sauce pan and set aside.

Open can of pineapple slices and drain juice into measuring cup. Add enough water to make 1 cup of liquid.

Remove the pineapple slices from the can. Chances are good that they will be a little too big to fit in the bottom of the muffin tin wells, so using kitchen shears or a paring knife, cut out a piece of the ring (between 1/4 and 1/2 inch) so that the ring becomes the right size for the wells when reconnected.

Place cake mix in large mixing bowl and add pineapple juice/water mixture, baking powder, baking soda, eggs and vegetable oil. Mix until smooth - two minutes or so with an electric mixer. Set aside.

Place about a tablespoon of butter in 10 of muffin tin wells. With a brush (or clean fingers work fine, also!) smear the melted butter around the inside walls of the well. Sprinkle two loose teaspoons of brown sugar on top of the butter and gently pat down. Place a resized pineapple ring on top of the brown sugar and place a cherry in the middle of the ring.

Once all the wells are prepared with butter, brown sugar, pineapple rings and cherries, fill them with cake batter until cake batter reaches about 3/4 of the way. You must leave room for the cake batter to rise, which it will when it bakes.

Place in oven and bake for 18-22 minutes, or until tops are golden brown and they spring back when gently touched. Transfer muffin tins to cooling rack and allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 5 minutes.

Using the dull side of a small, thin knife (like a paring knife) gently go around the edges of the cakes to make sure they aren't stuck to the pan. Invert pans on to cooling rack AND LEAVE THEM THERE for about 2 minutes. Gently give a tap to each one of the wells. This will help anything that might be stuck to fall into place. Slowly life the muffin tins straight up.

Allow cakes to cool completely on cooling rack. Enjoy!