Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Ingredients

  • 75g (⅓ cup) butter melted
  • 105g (½ cup) brown sugar packed
  • 1 20-ounce can sliced pineapple
  • maraschino cherries (about 16)
  • 65-70g (½ cup) chopped pecans
  • 3 eggs separated
  • 195-200g (1 cup) sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 130g (1 cup) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F. In an ungreased 9 inch square baking pan, combine butter and brown sugar, sprinkling sugar over melted butter.
  2. Drain pineapple, reserving ⅓ cup juice. Arrange 9 pineapple slices in a single layer over sugar (refrigerate any remaining slices for another use). Put a cherry in the center of each pineapple ring. Sprinkle pecans over pineapple; set aside.
  3. In a small bowl with clean beaters, beat egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form.
  4. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks until thick and lemon-colored. Gradually add sugar, beating well. Blend in vanilla and reserved pineapple juice. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; add to batter, beating well.
  5. Fold egg whites into batter. Spoon into pan.
  6. Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before inverting onto serving plate.

5/26/2024: came out well; like last time, baked around 15 minutes at 375°F on rack 2, then lowered temperature to 350°F for another 15-16 minutes until done. Cake comes out quite brown on top, but that’s fine. Didn’t need to cover with foil. Prepared pan with butter, sugar, and fruit, then whipped egg whites in stand mixer. Moved whites to another bowl while using the stand mixer to make the rest of the batter. Batter is quite wet until flour is added. Egg whites whip better when at room temperature, but eggs are much easier to separate when cold - so separate eggs when they come out of the refrigerator, and then leave them to warm a bit before using. I’ve read that it’s better to whip the whites after the yolks, so I may try that next time, although it will be less efficient. It may also be possible to whip the whites a bit less, leave them to stand while making the yolk misture, and then rewhipping a bit by hand before folding the whites in.