Pineapple Upside-down Cupcakes

No need to worry about icing/frosting these sweet little cakes, you serve these pineapple upside-down cupcakes just as the name suggests – upside-down!

I had a crazy surge of motivation the other day and I made and froze 48 home-made pizza rolls for school lunchboxes.

When I was done busily patting myself on the back for being so industrious and organised, I noticed I had almost a whole tine of pineapple left over from making the pizza rolls.

I contemplated just eating the whole tin of pineapple myself, but then another wave of motivation hit and I decided to make pineapple upside-down cake!

I remember my mum making pineapple upside-down cake when I was a child, and how much I loved the gooey sticky pineapple and glace cherry topping. So much better than icing!

I didn’t have any glace cherries and my pineapple was already cut into wedges so I decided to use dried cranberries and make cupcakes instead of a large cake.

I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but the old recipe scrawled on a dirty bit of paper was up for the challenge and they came out perfectly!

These pineapple upside-down cakes have deliciously, gooey sticky tops (or bottoms!), and light fluffy cake underneath!

Here is another easy recipe to try:

Tips for making Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes.

These pineapple upside-down cupcakes are not difficult to make (I’m not that good of a cook, so I don’t cook difficult things!) but there are a few things you need to be aware of to make these cakes totally awesome:

• Use an electric mixer if you have one and don’t scrimp on the mixing time for the butter, sugar and eggs. Beat that butter and sugar for at least 3 minutes till it is very light in colour, and beat the first egg well before you add the next.
• Take the time to cut out circles of baking paper to fit into the bottom of your muffin tin and really grease the tin well. You’ll thank me when it comes time to turn these babies out.
• Turn the cakes out of the tin as soon as you take them out of the oven. Don’t let them cool for even a minute! If the sugary coating over the pineapple has time to cool you’ll never get them out of the pan.

Here’s the recipe for pineapple upside-down cupcakes:

Pineapple Upside-down Cupcakes

Yield: 12 muffins

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

No need to use frosting on these sweet little pineapple upside-down cupcakes, and you serve them upside down!

Print

Ingredients

• 430gm (approx) can of pineapple rings or chunks in juice
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• a handful of dried cranberries
• 90 gms softened butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups of self raising flour
• 3 tbsp of juice from the tin of pineapple

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 180 Celcius.
2. Cut circles of baking paper to line the base of each cup in a regular sizes muffin tin. Then grease each cup very well with oil spray or butter.
3. Drain the pineapple well, setting aside 3 table spoons of juice for the recipe, and cut it into small wedges.
4. Sprinkle approximately 1 teaspoon of brown sugar into the bottom of each muffin tin cup and arrange three wedges of pineapple and three cranberries on top of the sugar.
5. Using an electric, mixer beat the butter and sugar for at least 3 minutes until it becomes light and fluffy Add the eggs one at a time and beat well with the mixer between each one.
6. Fold in the flour and the pineapple juice and mix until combined.
7. Spoon the cake mixture into the muffin tin, filling each cup only 3/4 full. Carefully spread the cake mixture to make sure it covers the base of each cup and give the muffin tin a few taps on the table to help everything settle into place.
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
9. Turn the cakes out onto a wire as soon as you take them out of the oven.

Please note: this recipe uses Australian measurements and temperatures, if you need to convert measurements or temperatures you can find our printable cooking conversion chart here.

Do you have a recipe from your childhood that brings back fond memories?

These upside-down pineapple cupcakes remind me of my Mum and my Nan. I love these old fashioned, simple, unfussy, recipes that are quick to make, and taste great.

If you liked this recipe you might like these simple, unfussy recipes too: