Pineapple upside-downishness...

Posted from my new BlackBerry PlayBook (so many mixed-capital letters!) because it takes decent pictures and I can get them up here right away.  Yay!

Here’s tomorrow night’s pineapple upside-down cake – a vintage classic.  I admit, I have never loved pineapple anything, but we had the bottle of cherries sitting around,and the funky visual appeal of this cake is irresistible (indeed, I was moved to make this by a picture on a facebook friend’s profile). 

Haven’t tasted it yet, but the recipe is pasted at the bottom of this post if you’d like to try it yourself.

A big plus of this cake is that it’s “naturally” pareve, ie no messy recipe adaptations required.  A big minus, in some folks’ opinion, is that the main “moistener” is mayonnaise… well, that and boiling water.  If you can get past the idea that you’re eating mayonnaise cake, another plus is that you don’t need to add eggs.  You can also try part-mayo and part-yogurt or sour cream or buttermilk if you want a dairy cake.  Probably any of those would work fine to provide that “tangy” element.

You can’t really tell here, but this is the cast-iron skillet before I poured the batter in.  My pareve skillet (still pareve, despite an “issue” last week!!!) is 11” in diameter, and I’m glad I didn’t try this in a smaller pan.  It was exactly the right size, no spills whatsoever.

I know a good cast-iron pan is non-stick, but I stayed on the safe side and both sprayed and lined the skillet first!  I spread a base of some leftover coconut-milk caramel aka dulce de leche I’ve been raving about, sprinkled with a bit of brown sugar.  Then, I arranged the pineapples and cherries decoratively on top.

Poured in the batter and baked about 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

Here’s what it looked like, coming out of the oven:

I was nervous about the “big flip”.  When I tried it last week with cornbread, it turned out not to be baked enough and batter goobered out everywhere – not good.  This time, I put the flat pan overtop of the skillet so the transition would be foolproof.  No problem!  Peeled off the parchment paper, and voila!

(see the steam coming off the top?)

Here’s the recipe, but I remind you, I haven’t actually TASTED the cake yet.  I just

WHITE MAYONNAISE CAKE
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
2 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. boiling water
1 c. mayonnaise
1 tsp. vanilla

(Add 4 tablespoons cocoa to make Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake.)

Sift sugar, flour, soda, and salt twice (I pulsed the dry stuff well in the food processor).

Mix in remaining ingredients (I mixed them in a separate bowl first, then pulsed them into the food processor until evenly mixed).

Pour into greased 13 x 9 inch pan (I used my skillet).

Bake 35 minutes at 325 degrees.  (I did 40 at 350… no biggie either way)

I haven’t done the frosting step, but wanted to preserve it here just in case I want to try:

While baking prepare frosting. Melt 1 stick butter. Add 1 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 1/2 cup coconut and milk to blend (1/4 cup or less). While cake is warm, spread frosting on top. Place under broiler until bubbly and brown.

Ess and enjoy!

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