his is THE best easy Pineapple Upside-Down Cake from scratch! Made with a soft, fluffy, and simple vanilla cake base that uses only the most basic ingredients and a pretty topping of caramelized pineapple and maraschino cherries, this classic recipe is slated to be a staple in your baking repertoire. It’s easy to prepare (even for beginners) and has received rave reviews!
If you follow my Instagram stories, you might be tired of seeing this pineapple upside-down cake already. That’s because it took me so many attempts to get it right, and every time I thought I nailed it, I shared it on Instagram, and then it turned out that I hadn’t quite turned out like I’d hoped, after all.
Sorry about that.
It was the fluffy vanilla cake layer that was so difficult. The pineapple and cherry top (/bottom?) is the easy part, it’s just a matter of combining melted butter and brown sugar in a pie plate and assembling your fruit, but a well-suited vanilla cake was much trickier to get right.
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
This recipe is not only a classic, it’s super EASY to make and can be prepped in 25 minutes! Caramelized pineapple and cherries over a soft vanilla cake layer, this cake has hundreds of rave review!
Ingredients
Topping
- ▢¼ cup butter salted or unsalted melted (60g)
- ▢½ cup brown sugar light or dark (I usually use light) tightly packed (100g)
- ▢10 pineapple rings/slices patted dry
- ▢maraschino cherries
Vanilla Cake
- ▢½ cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (115g)
- ▢¾ cup sugar (150g)
- ▢2 eggs room temperature preferred
- ▢1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ▢1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (195g)
- ▢1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ▢¼ teaspoon salt
- ▢½ cup milk room temperature preferred (120ml)
Recommended Equipment
- ▢Pie plate
- ▢Mixing bowls
Cook Mode
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C)
- Pour melted butter into 9.5-10″ pie plate or deep cake pan, make sure it entirely covers the bottom of the pan and use a spoon or spatula to grease the sides of the pan.
- Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter mixture. Arrange pineapple slices over the bottom of the pan, slice leftover slices in half and arrange up the sides of the pan, as seen in photo.
- Place cherries in center of pineapple rings and as desired in empty spaces. Set aside.
- To prepare vanilla cake, beat butter and sugar in medium-sized bowl until creamy and well-combined.
- Add eggs, beating one at a time until combined.
- Stir in vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Alternate adding flour and milk to the wet ingredients, starting and ending with flour and mixing until just combined after each addition (I prefer to do this part by hand with a spatula to be sure not to overmix).
- Pour batter evenly over prepared cake pan and pineapple/cherry layer.
- Bake on 350F (175C) for 30 minutes. At the 30 minute mark, loosely cover with foil and continue to bake (still on 350F/175C) for another 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean with few crumbs (total cook time for cake will be 45 minutes).
- Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes and then carefully invert cake onto serving platter (careful, it will still be very hot!).
- Allow to cool before cutting and enjoying, but don’t wait too long as this cake tastes wonderful (best!) warm from the oven!
Notes
Pineapple Upside Down cake is best served fresh and warm (isn’t everything, though).
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 433kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 88mg | Sodium: 253mg | Potassium: 243mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 43g | Vitamin A: 652IU | Vitamin C: 7mg | Calcium: 87mg | Iron: 2mg
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.