Black Folks Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

This pineapple upside down cake is soft and buttery with a caramelized brown sugar, pineapple & cherry topping. Its juices seep down into the cake, adding even more luscious flavor and texture. Melted butter, brown sugar, and fruit form the base of this cake as it bakes in the oven — but once it’s done and flipped, it turns into a delicious caramelized topping with cherry-studded pineapple rings.

A classic cake favorite using canned pineapple and maraschino cherries, this retro cake is served upside down and perfect any time of year.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Recipe

This Black Folks pineapple upside down cake recipe uses creamed butter instead of melted, cake flour instead of all-purpose flour, all white sugar instead of brown sugar + white, and using egg whites guarantees a huge textural difference.

3.67 from 6 votes

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Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 35 mins

Cool 20 mins

Total Time 1 hr 15 mins

Servings 12 people

Ingredients

  

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• 1/4 cup Butter (creamed)
• 1 cup Packed brown sugar
• 1 can Pineapple slices in juice rained, juice reserved
• 1 jar Maraschino cherries without stems drained
• 1 box Yellow Cake Mix
• Vegetable oil
• Eggs called for on cake mix box

Instructions

 

• Prepare the topping: Melt the butter, pour into an un-greased cake pan or pie dish, sprinkle with brown sugar, then arrange the blotted pineapple rings and maraschino cherries as you see in my photos and video tutorial.
• We refrigerate the topping to prepare the cake batter– this helps solidify the designed arrangement underneath the wet cake batter.
• Prepare the cake batter: Whisk the dry ingredients together.
• In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together.
• Beat in the egg whites and vanilla, then the sour cream.
• Pour the dry into the wet ingredients, pour in the pineapple juice & milk, and then beat to combine.
• You’ll have about 2 cups of cake batter and it’s very straightforward to prepare.
• Spread over topping: Pour and spread the cake batter over the chilled topping.
• Bake: Because of the wet bottom layer (which is the topping), the cake takes much longer than a typical 1 layer cake.
• Its juices will bubble up the sides, creating these incredible caramelized edges.
• With upside down cakes, it’s always good practice to place a baking pan or sheet on a lower rack to catch any juices should they splatter over the edges.
• Cool: Cool the cake for 20 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate.
• Inverting any sooner will create a seeping mess– we want the topping to “set” as much as it can.
• You can serve this cake warm, though it slices much better if you let it cool completely at room temperature first.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!