The Story:
My best friend admitted to me that he has never had pineapple upside down cake. My jaw just dropped and I was so confused. Maybe I just feel like this cake is a staple in my life because I would eat it every night at Girl’s Camp during the summer, but who really knows. I do know that pineapple upside down cake is amazing and he needed to experience it. I decided to fix this problem of his in cupcake form. Now, I know most people still take the upside down approach for cupcakes, but I decided that those just are not pretty enough to take photos of. So I chose to do more of a pineapple “inside out” cake.
The best news? I made 24 cupcakes and still had extra batter to make him a real pineapple upside down cake so that he could experience the magical brown sugar glaze.
Ingredients:1 bow yellow cake mix
eggs and oil called for on cake mix box
1 large can crushed pineapple
¼ cup milk
1/3 cup flour
24 or 48 maraschino cherries
Brown Sugar Buttercream:
3 egg whites
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
¾ cup butter, softened
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs and oil together.
3. Sift (or don’t if you want a real work out which mixing) in yellow cake mix.
4. Add pineapple, juice and all, and ¼ cup milk. Mix together until well blended. (The consistency should still be the same as normal cake batter. I needed to add about 1/3 cup flour to get it right.)
5. Spoon about ½ a tablespoon on batter into each cupcake liner and then place a cherry in the center. Make sure to remove stems. Then cover the cherry with more batter until about ¾ full.
6. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until a fork comes out clean. The cake will not rise too much and is very moist but bakes fast! So be careful.
7. Buttercream: In a small metal bowl, whisk eggs whites, salt and brown sugar together over a pan of simmering water. (Double boiler.) Whisk until sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm.
8. Pour mixture into a mixing bowl and beat at medium speed until cool and frothy. 10-15 minutes. Then increase speed to high until soft peaks form.
9. Decrease speed to medium and slowly add butter until fluffy.
10. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and top with another cherry if you really want to impress.
I'm happy to say that my first experience with pineapple upside down cake was a success!
I'll be trying this one for sure. Pineapple Upside Cake is hubby's favorite so this should be a hit!
what size tip do you use to frost your cupcakes! I need to get one!
Two of my favorite tips are the Ateco #856 and #867. Go for tips that are the same size as those and you'll be set!
Love this one. I love pineapple so I am sure this one will be a favorite. Where do you get your white paper cupcake cups? The ones that look like big catsup cups. I love that look.
I get them from a place called Cash & Carry. It is a wholesale place, but it is only in a few states. Some specialty cake places have them as well, but they are just more expensive there. They are called souffle cups, good luck finding them! They are wonderful for muffins!
What a great idea! love it!
These look wonderful! I can't wait to try them!
I just took these out of the oven not long ago.. They smell sooooo good! I made the icing, but it has the consistency between a glaze and whipped cream. I put it in the fridge. Any other ideas how to get this to thicken up? Thanks!
Did you beat the mixture for 15 minutes? Use a whisk attachment 🙂
I beat it for atleast that. I have it in the fridge and I'll try beating it some more. I'll have to get hand mixer out and use the whisk attachment. My stand mixer doesn't have one 🙁 Thanks so much for the quick reply 🙂
Turned out perfect after beating with the whisk. I flunked at following directions! Thanks so much. These are soooo, soooo good!
OH GOOD! Directions can be tricky…but are very important 🙂 Enjoy!
20oz crushed pineapple ok?
Yes, that should be fine
How cool does the mixture need to be? My first batch it was still slightly warm and it was a disaster (delicious but not usable) This batch is cooler, but not just room temperature. Wondering if I need to keep beating, or put it in the fridge for a little?
It has to be cool. If its warm you risk melting the butter you add and making a mess. You can also just top it with the meringue and no butter, and torch is a bit on top of the cupcakes
I failed again 🙁 When I was beating it on high it never formed soft peaks. I ended up just going with a caramel cream cheese — but the cake is AWESOME!!
Lizzy Mae – you are brilliant! Thank you for helping me understand just how amazing cupcakes can be! I’ve made many of your recipes – these were so very yummy!
I’m not sure if you are still replying to this post… but, I have a couple of questions. I am wanting to use this recipe, but make camo cupcakes. My question is, do you think the icing would hold up if I divided it and added food coloring? And do you think I should double the icing recipe?
I’m sorry, “camo” cupcakes? I don’t understand…
Camouflage
Oh, I guess I’ve just never heard of camo cupcakes. Sorry!
Help!! My frosting was turning out great until I added the butter and now it’s soupy and I can’t get it to fluff back up. Any suggestions?? Thank you!
Did you ever figure out your problem? I have the same one! I have it beating more but it may a lost cause. 🙁
how many cupcakes does this make? looks yummy!