ǝʞɐɔ uʍop ǝpısdn ǝןddɐǝuıd ? I was tempted to have the whole blog post upside down but, ya know, people mostly like to read stuff right side up. Mostly. This old-fashioned cake has made it's way into our kitchen and on our plates. It was Jeff's birthday and I wanted to make a traditional birthday cake, but we had a discussion of Pineapple upside down cake a while back, of all things, and this cake was a little higher on the priority list of cakes. Actually now that I remember the discussion started when we had some Pineapple upside down cupcakes from Susie Cakes which tasted great but was a little short on the pineapple and heavy on the frosting. I found this recipe on Epicurious and used a few tips from Smitten Kitchen. I skipped the cardamon completely, and after reading some reviews on epicurious I cut the sugar in half, the original recipe had 1 cup of sugar, a lot of people were saying it was too sweet, so I'll post the recipe the way I made it, we were more than happy with it, and if you can cut half the sugar and it's still sweet, why not? I also cut the brown sugar from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup for the topping, or bottoming as it were, and I made the whole business in cast iron which was fun and worked out well, I think it just needs to be well seasoned. Recipe below. ¡ʎoظuǝ

Pineapple Upside Down Cake
(adapted from Epicurious - Gourmet)

Topping:

1/2 medium pineapple, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cored
3/4 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

Batter:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon dark rum
1/2 cup unsweetened pineapple juice
2 tablespoons dark rum for sprinkling over cake

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Make topping:
Cut pineapple crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick pieces. Melt butter in cast-iron skillet. Add brown sugar and simmer over moderate heat, stirring, 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Arrange pineapple on top of sugar mixture in concentric circles, overlapping pieces slightly.

Make batter:
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then gradually beat in granulated sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and rum. Add half of flour mixture and beat on low speed just until blended. Beat in pineapple juice, then add remaining flour mixture, beating just until blended. (Batter may appear slightly curdled.)

Spoon batter over pineapple topping and spread evenly. Bake cake in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Let cake stand in skillet 5 minutes. Invert a plate over skillet and invert cake onto plate (keeping plate and skillet firmly pressed together). Replace any pineapple stuck to bottom of skillet. Sprinkle rum over cake and cool on plate on a rack.

Serve cake just warm or at room temperature.