We have a lot to celebrate this week; my YouTube channel has reached 5K subscribers (oh my gosh thank you so much!) and I’ve done another lap around the sun. One of the best ways to celebrate anything is by eating cake, one of my favourite past times and something I am pretty good at so I thought it might be fun to create the most popular cake from the 1950s, the pineapple upside-down cake. This classic cake has a light and fruity sponge adorned with a caramelized layer of pineapple and maraschino cherries. It’s been popular for a very long while and I’ve always wanted to make it. I am very excited to share and celebrate with you all today.

After browsing the internet and my old cookbooks for a good recipe to follow, I came across the Vintage Recipe Project, a collection of home vintage recipes that have been submitted and I thought it was such a great idea. I wanted to use one of their Pineapple upside-down cake recipes which I have pictured below but unfortunately, there are no details as to where or when this recipe is from.

For this recipe you will need:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
Can of sliced Pineapple
2 tbs large whole pecans
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3 eggs separated
1 cup white sugar
5 tbs pineapple juice
1 jar of Maraschino Cherries

To bake our cake, we will start by;
-Melt the butter in a large baking pan. Spread brown sugar evenly in the pan and arrange pineapple slices on the sugar.
I’d recommend drying the pineapple slices on some paper towel to avoid your cake going too soggy. Fill in the gaps of your pineapples with a maraschino cherry or as the recipe suggests whole pecans.
-In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
-In a separate large bowl, beat your egg yolks until light, adding sugar gradually. Then add in your pineapple juice and flour mixture. Mix.
-Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.
-Pour this batter gently over the top of your pineapples.
-Bake at 190 degrees for 30 minutes.
-To serve, turn upside down onto a plate. Enjoy.

We had a few little things go wrong during the recipe; unfortunately, my brand-new baking pan leaked despite it being sold to me as anti-leaking. This meant that I lost a lot of the butter and brown sugar mixture on the bottom which made the cake a little dry. This also caused a very strong burnt sugar smell which has been lingering in my house for two days despite constant ventilation.

Secondly, after checking my cake with a skewer at the 30-minute mark, the skewer came out with cake batter on it so I left it for another 15 minutes. I wonder whether this was a tad too long as the cake was a bit on the dry side. I’m not a fan of dry cakes so I’d suggest if this happens to you, serve with whipped cream or some ice cream on the side.

Despite a few issues, the cake actually tasted really delicious. The sponge was light and fluffy, probably from the way the eggs were incorporated, and I think the caramelized pineapple on top was delicious. This cake would have been perfect had it not been for the leak and being in the oven slightly too long but those issues all come down to my poor choices.
I think this is a recipe I would definitely make again with a few minor tweaks. I think next time I will use a larger baking tray, not use a tray that leaks and take the cake out maybe after 35 minutes instead. In saying that, I am really happy with my first attempt as this is a cake I’ve always wanted to make and I think it looks pretty.

This cake is a huge celebration and thank you to everyone who has subscribed to my channel. It really means so much to me to have your support and kindness. I promise that I am trying really hard to keep producing fun and exciting videos every week and I’m always happy to hear your suggestions so keep them coming. Thank you again for all the love, I’ll save a slice of cake for you.

Note: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions and thoughts expressed are solely my own and not influenced in any way. There are no affiliate links and I do not benefit from any link clicks or purchases made.