Here's a new recipe for the six inch cake collection -- Six Inch Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. The recipe is originally from a 2010 Cook's Illustrated Cooking for Two special edition magazine. Bake it in six inch cake pans and present it as Pineapple Upside Down Cake for Two. Alternatively, you can fit it in a small loaf pan.
Fat Daddio Cake Six Inch Pans (or 6-Inch)
Back in 2010 when I first bookmarked the recipe, six inch pans (I should be spelling this 6-inch) were available but not so readily. With the fame of the Instant Pot and an increase in small batch baking, six inch pans are easier to come by. I like the Fat Daddio pans, but they are the only ones I've ever owned so I can't really compare.
Porcupine Cake!
But back to the cake. It doesn't look like your usual pineapple upside down cake because instead of pineapple rings and cherries it has big chunks of pineapple. Really big chunks! The first time around I didn't pay attention to the "½ inch" size chunk size given by CI and had a top heavy cake that looked like a porcupine.
Best Pineapple For Upside Down Cake
It was edible, but had too much fruit. According to the original article, using pineapple chunks instead of rings is supposed to give you more fruit in every bite, but this was a little much. We also missed the cherries, because what is a pineapple upside down cake without them? So I made a second six inch pineapple upside-down cake using a combination of rings, chunks and cherries. I had to combine what was left of the fresh with some canned so that I wouldn't have to buy a new pineapple. Hopefully the gist of this is "anything goes" when it comes to your pineapple.
The new cake with the smaller chunks of fruit was much better, and I'm looking forward to making it again in the future. The rest of this cake is going in the freezer.
Recipe
Six Inch Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped pineapple cut into ½ inch pieces
- 6 ct cherries, Maraschino, stems removed
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided use (84 grams)
- ⅓ cup packed light brown sugar (65 grams)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar (65 grams)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg. room temperature
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour, room temperature (104 gram)
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons milk whole (42 grams)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put 2 tablespoons of the butter in a 6-inch round cake pan. Set it in the oven, set the timer for 3 minutes, and let the butter melt. Keep a close eye on it!
- Remove pan with melted butter from the oven and add the brown sugar. Stir until blended, then spread evenly across bottom of the pan.
- Cover bottom over the pan with pineapple chunks and cherries.
- With an electric mixer, beat the remaining 4 tablespoons of softened butter and the ⅓ cup of granulated sugar until creamy. Beat in the vanilla. Add the egg and stir util mixed, then beat for 30 seconds.
- Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add half the mixture to the batter and stir well. Stir in the milk, then add remaining flour mixture and stir until smooth.
- Scrape batter into the pan so that it covers the fruit. Smooth the top and gently tap the pan on the counter to settle the batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out with clean crumbs. Bake for about 45 to 50 minutes. You can check earlier if if your oven runs hot.
- Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then carefully loosen from the side of the pan. Place a serving plate over the top of the cake pan, invert the cake and let sit until cake releases itself from the pan. Do not shake or tap the pan (like I did!) or you might break the cake. It is very delicate at this point.
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