Flour's Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

For those of us who grew up on pineapple upside-down cake made with Duncan Hines cake mix and canned pineapple rings with a maraschino cherry in the middle, Joanne Chang's Flour Bakery version represents everything good about adapting a 1960s recipe to today's trends. The combination of fresh pineapple and "real" caramel with a rustic butter cake simply changed my mind forever about pineapple upside-down cake.

This was my first attempt at caramel, and the richness and flavor it imparted to the cake was amazing. The cake baked into the caramel/pineapple mixture, creating wonderful caramelized bites of buttery goodness--I know that sounds hokey, but it's the best description I have.



Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
adapted from Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe

For the caramel and caramelized pineapple:
fresh pineapple chunks
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
6 tablespoons salted butter (Ms. Chang uses unsalted)

For the cake:
1 cup flour (I used unbleached bread flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (my addition)
pinch kosher salt
2 eggs, room temperature
3 egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup salted butter, melted and cooled

Mix sugar and water in saucepan and bring to rolling boil over medium high heat. Lower heat and continue to boil till sugar syrup begins to caramelize, about 3 to 4 minutes. (I had to adjust my electric stove to lower than the high heat specified in the cookbook.) Swirl mixture gently over heat until caramel is medium golden brown. Turn heat to low and carefully add 6 tablespoons butter. Mix in pineapple and stir until mixed well and liquified. Bring to boil over medium high heat, then turn to low and simmer 8 to 12 minutes, or until pineapple is golden brown. Remove pineapple and boil remaining liquid on medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, or until syrupy.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Use baking spray or butter a 9-inch cake pan (the recipe specifies 9 inch but I will use an 8 inch next time.) Mix pineapple back into caramel syrup and pour into cake pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and pinch of salt. In mixing bowl whisk eggs and egg yolks, then slowly whisk in sugar, vanilla, and melted butter. Fold flour mixture into egg mixture just until well combined. Pour batter over pineapple mixture.

Bake 30 minutes (the recipe specifies 50-60 minutes, but mine would have been burned--you may adjust your baking time according to your oven) or until golden brown and springs back when pressed in middle. Let cool in pan on wire rack 20-30 minutes, then carefully invert over serving plate, scraping any caramel mixture that sticks back onto the cake. Let cool at least 30 minutes and serve.

I highly recommend this cookbook. There are so many recipes I want to make. Each recipe has a little story with it, and the instructions are clear and easy to follow. I bought it for myself before Christmas. In the busy-ness of the holidays, I put it on a shelf and forgot about it until a cooking friend reminded me of it when she bought it for herself. Her enraptured descriptions of the cookbook sent me racing through the house to find my copy!