So I wanted to bake an upside down cake this weekend, but I wanted to try something different. I had decided I would do David Lebovitz’s recipe for Plum Blueberry Upside Down Cake from his book Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes… but after I had decided and went out to buy the ingredients, I couldn’t find any plums!
So on to plan B. I had to think of a recipe quick to replace the Plum Blueberry Cake because I needed a cake to bring to a party. My husband suggested the Pineapple Upside Down Cake my mother-in-law makes which always comes out deliciously addicting. We called her quick while we were at the plum-less supermarket and got the ingredients for the Pineapple Upside Down Cake instead.
This is more of a classic, but hopefully I’ll get around to making that other upside down cake sometime.
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The ingredients for this cake turned out to be butter cake mix with the basic ingredients and sliced canned pineapple in juice. I felt a little like a cheater with the cake mix and all, but I had to make a cake on the fly with my original recipe being impossible to make right now. So my mother-in-law showed me how she made hers and that’s how I made the cake pictured.
I promise all recipes after this will be made from scratch! You can call this the only semi-homemade recipe you will ever find on this blog.
The Upside Down Portion
Before you make the cake, you have to put your topping on the bottom of the baking dish. It cooks on the bottom and then the
cake gets flipped over to reveal the topping. That’s what makes it an upside down cake! It gets cooked upside down.
On the bottom of the cake pan you place a mixture of melted butter and brown sugar and then all your pineapple slices and cherries in a nice pattern.
Make the Cake
Now you just have to follow the instructions on the box to make the cake itself. Very easy!
Put the batter in the cake pan over the pineapples and cherries and then bake.
The secret to this upside down cake which makes it so yummy is that you reserve the pineapple juice from the can and then pour it into the cake after it’s baked! This makes the cake super moist and it tastes absolutely delicious.

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Try some other cakes like my Chocolate Cake or Blueberry Lemon Torte.
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Pineapple Upside Down Cake
With Love, MelissaIngredients
- 1 Package Butter Cake Mix
- Eggs
- Oil
- Water
- 2/3 Cup Butter
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1-2 Cans Sliced Pineapple in Juice
- Maraschino Cherries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine the required amounts of eggs, water, and oil the for butter cake mix you bought and beat in stand mixer or with hand mixer until combined. Set aside.
- In a different bowl, combine the melted butter and brown sugar. Take a greased 10″ cake pan and cover the bottom with the brown sugar and butter mixture. Make sure it covers the whole bottom and you can put it up the sides a little.
- Open up the pineapple can and drain the juice. Set juice aside for later. Take the pineapple slices and place in the brown sugar mixture in a nice pattern. You can place them in whatever pattern you see fit and can put halves on the sides as well. Then take your cherries and place them in the centers of the pineapple slices.
- Pour the batter over everything. Bake the cake for anywhere from 30-40 minutes. You will know its done when the top is a nice golden brown and a knife inserted in the center is clean.
- After you take your cake out of the oven, poke with a fork or toothpick and then pour the reserved pineapple juice all onto the cake. Let the cake soak and cool and then turn it onto a plate to serve.
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