Where can i buy a pineapple upside down cake

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What do the pineapple upside down cake, carrot cake and key lime pie bake offs have in common? All were desserts I hadn’t eaten very often previously but ignited a deep infatuation afterwards. (In case you’re curious, M&M cookies and banana bread were two bake offs that pushed me the opposite direction.)

While in search of the best pineapple upside down cake recipe, I discovered so many benefits to PUDC. Not only is it one of the most aesthetically pleasing cakes, it’s also so fun to flip (rarely sticks to the pan!). And how you can beat the glossy pineapple-infused jammy caramel on top of a fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth yellow cake? You can’t. Let’s get into these delicious cakes.

METHODOLOGY // RESULTS // FACTORS // ANALYSIS // RECOMMENDATIONS

What is Pineapple Upside Down Cake?

Per this article, the origins of pineapple upside down cake are rooted in cast-iron skillet cakes made hundreds of years ago. As stoves were historically not very reliable, skillet cakes were an easy way to cook via the stove and invert the cake to reveal a topping. Once James Dole found a way to can mass amounts of pineapple in the early 1900s, pineapple upside down cake was born.

Pineapple upside down cake is composed of a topping of pineapple, butter and brown sugar with a vanilla cake batter poured over. After baking, you invert the cake onto a plate for a beautiful final product with caramelized pineapple on top! I did wonder for a minute whether this was a valid bake off or if it’d be a repeat of the vanilla cake or yellow cake bake off. But I quickly realized that the pineapple topping makes it an entirely different beast.

Although pineapple upside down cake can commonly include maraschino cherries, nuts and sometimes rum, I only tested recipes that didn’t use nuts or alcohol for consistency. Not in keeping with the roots of the dessert, I also didn’t use any cast iron skillets. This is because 1) most recipes called for a regular cake pan/offered a cake pan alternative and 2) I don’t currently own a cast iron 😢. More on not using cast iron below!

Methodology

• 33 total tasters
• All 9 recipes were baked the day of tasting
• All cakes were baked in cake pans specified by the recipe
• Tasters ranked each cake on a scale from 0-10 for overall flavor, texture, and as a whole
• Ingredients were measured by weight according to the King Arthur website

Results

• Gold Medal bleached all-purpose flour
• Trader Joe’s butter
• Crisco butter-flavored shortening
• King Arthur cake flour
• Bob’s Red Mill baking powder and soda
• Daisy sour cream
• Diamond kosher salt
• Whole Foods 365 Pineapple Slices in juice
• Favorite Day maraschino cherries
• Imperial granulated and powdered sugar

PARTNER NOTE: I’m delighted to be partnering with Imperial Sugar on this bake off as I’ve consistently used their consistent, high-quality pure cane sugar products throughout my bake offs. Imperial Sugar is non-GMO verified, allergen free and gluten-free!

For more sweet inspiration, you can visit Imperial Sugar to find more than 4,000 expert-tested recipes, free downloadable vintage cookbooks, sugar scrubs and bath products at the Sugar Spa, and lots of helpful guides on their blog. You can also check out their Pinterest, You Tube, Instagram for even more recipe inspiration!

Results

As with most bake offs, I think these are all fantastic recipes that are all worth making! It simply depends on your preference for drier/moister cake, more/less richness, etc. My personal favorites actually didn’t really align with the ultimate results-they placed around the middle of the pack. But I do think the top recipes are absolutely well-deserved. I encourage you to read through every cake description to find your ideal pineapple upside down cake!

Factors

• Pineapple type: I was extremely curious to see if fresh pineapple would make a significant difference vs. canned. Ultimately, I think both have pros and cons. Canned pineapple is more consistent in both flavor and consistency. Fresh pineapple will obviously be more variable depending on how ripe it is. I found that fresh pineapple generally had a slightly more complex flavor with more tartness that contrasted against the caramel. However, I think these are generally interchangeable. So if you can’t access fresh pineapple or you’re simply too lazy to cut one up, canned works very well!
• Pineapple technique: Many of these recipes called for a simple technique of layering melted butter, brown sugar and pineapple in the bottom of the pan before topping with cake batter. A few called for cooking the butter and sugar together first while only one recipe (F&W) called for cooking the pineapple in the butter and sugar. I don’t think the first two techniques had a notable difference. But I do think that cooking the pineapple IN the butter/sugar obviously leads to a richer/more caramelized-tasting pineapple. Though the pineapple gets sliiightly more tender, it won’t get soggy! I’d recommend it if you’re worried your pineapple isn’t optimally ripe or if you want that extra complex flavor. But if you want a fresher, more pure pineapple flavor, I’d stick with a simpler topping technique.
• Eggs: Although I knew there would be a lot of confounding factors in this bake off, I was curious to see if egg whites vs. whole eggs with whipped whites vs. whole eggs added with yolks and whites separately vs. whole eggs added all at once would make a difference. In the end, the egg white cake (Sally’s) felt drier and less rich than virtually all other cakes. I don’t think the varying techniques of adding whole eggs made an apparent difference in the rest of the cakes. So bottom line is I’d just add the eggs whole and wouldn’t bother whipping the egg whites!
• Fat: In a somewhat surprising turn, butter-based cakes topped the charts this time! In the bake offs, cakes made with half butter half oil cakes historically tend to prevail for their balance of moisture and flavor. I do think the toppings greatly influenced the ratings here (obviously detracting from the flavor/texture of the cake itself). Also, the top two cakes were the only cakes to use the reverse creaming method. I think this made for a really delightful texture and another possible that propelled these butter-based cakes to the top.
• Dairy: The main types of dairy that enhanced these cake recipes were sour cream, milk, buttermilk and heavy cream. There weren’t really any clear themes of which type of dairy tended to do better (again, so many confounding factors). The top three ranked recipes used milk, sour cream and no dairy (just pineapple juice). Ultimately, a note that the dairy isn’t a huge factor as the cake is a sum of its parts.
• Flour: In this bake off, the flavor of the bleached cake flour really stood out to me vs. the cakes made with all-purpose flour (in a good way). I describe it as giving things a “doughy” flavor in some of the below cakes. Not sure if I’m just getting more sensitive to the flavor of cake flour or if it stands out more in PUDC for some reason. But I really enjoyed the kind of starchy sweet flavor of cake flour in some of these cakes! The best way I can think to describe the taste of cake flour in a cake is a Lofthouse cookie-that flavor basically embodies cake flour flavor to me, particularly when it’s used in conjunction with an ingredient like sour cream.

Top 13 where can i buy a pineapple upside down cake edited by Family Cuisine