Serenity Swamp: October 2011

Today is Greg's birthday. He loves pineapple upside down cake, so I usually bake him one for his birthday. This year as I was cruising Tastespotting for a recipe to try, I found a double-decker version. If he loves the original version that's only one layer, two layers is even better.

As usual, I didn't keep track of the name of the blog; as usual, I changed the recipe a little, and the instructions a lot, so technically it's not the same cake anyway. Besides, the blogger had adapted it from Betty Crocker so it wasn't even her recipe, either.

Here's the recipe:

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Pineapple Upside-Down 2-Layer Cake
Makes 10 servings

1/4 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 20 oz can pineapple slices, drained reserving juice (10 slices of pineapple)
16 maraschino cherries without stems
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cups wheat flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 stick of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3 teaspoons baking powder (I use a sodium-free version)
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cup almond milk
2 eggs
3 Tbs. reserved pineapple juice

Directions:

Heat oven to 350°F. Divide 1/4 cup butter between two 9" round cake pans, place in oven and allow butter to melt. Remove pans from and divide and sprinkle brown sugar evenly between pans over melted butter. Slice pineapple rings in half to fit around edge of pan on top of brown sugar mixture. Place remaining whole pineapple slices in middle of pan. Place cherry in center of each pineapple slice.

Sift together the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt

In mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, almond milk, and pineapple juice. Mix to combine.

Add the dry ingredients, and beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.

Divide batter between cake pans and pour batter over pineapple and cherries.

Bake 45-50 minutes or until cake tester or toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Immediately place heatproof serving plate upside down over pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake a few minutes so brown sugar mixture can drizzle over cake; remove pan.

Loosen edges of cake in second pan by running a knife carefully along edge. With the aid of an offset spatula (or any wide long handled spatula) quickly but gently flip second cake over, bracing with spatula, and place on top of first cake. Make sure second layer is centered before removing spatula. Allow cake pan to rest for a minute or two on top of cake so that the brown sugar mixture can drizzle onto cake. Remove top pan. Cool thoroughly and serve.

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The original recipe called for milk; I substituted almond milk. The original recipe also used all-purpose flour only but I substituted 2/3 cups of wheat flour for 2/3 cups of white.

Since it's a 2-layer cake, I made the top layer pretty.

In the past, when I've taken a pineapple upside-down cake out of the pan, I've flipped it onto a plate and pulled the pan off. This time I left the pan on for a few minutes so the brown sugar mixture could drizzle down a little. When I took the pan off, 3 of the pineapple pieces stuck to the pan; I just put them back on the cake. Sadly, I put them on upside down so they didn't look as carmelized as the other slices. It's the bottom layer, nobody will know.

The top layer was a little tricky; I didn't get it on straight but it's close enough. It's a homemade cake, after all. I left the pan on the top layer for a few minutes after I flipped it, and this time when I took the pan off, everything stayed on the cake.