Pineapple Upside-Down Coffee Cake

Hi all! Here's something I want to share with you... I made this yesterday and I believe it is better than the pineapple upside-down cake that I'm used to. I do love the butter cake recipe I have but this recipe has more depth to it than I expected. Flavors are more pronounced too. :) I took a big bite of it yesterday and I was pretty impressed. 

Pineapple Upside-Down Coffee Cake

Adapted from BHG Magazine

Prep: 25 minutes

Bake: 35 minutes

Oven: 350 degrees

Cake Topping:

½ cup (1 stick) butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

12 canned pineapple rings in juice, reserve ½ cup of juice 

Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground nutmeg

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

½ cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Maraschino cherries

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter or spray the bottom and sides of a 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Set aside. For pineapple topping, melt ½ cup butter in a medium sauce pan over low heat. Stir in 1 cup brown sugar. Bring to boiling over medium heat, stirring frequently. Pour into prepared pan. Drain pineapple rings, reserving ½ cup juice. Fit 12 rings into bottom off pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together, flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. In a large mixing bowl beat softened butter, granulated sugar and ½ cup brown sugar with electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Add eggs; beat until combined. On low speed, beat in half of flour mixture. Pour in reserved ½ cup pineapple juice and the milk; beat until combined. Beat in remaining flour mixture and vanilla.
3. Spread butter evenly and carefully over pineapple slices in pan. Bake 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan or wire rack 10 minutes . Place a serving tray or baking sheet over cake; carefully invert. If any pineapple sticks to the pan, gently replace on cake top.

Printer-friendly version of the recipe here.

A few notes to my friends who are just now starting to bake:

• Preheating your oven to the required temperature is a very crucial part in the baking process. If you want your baked goods to turn out like how you see them in the recipe photos, preheat your oven. Better yet, get an oven thermometer. There are all kind available out there. Residential stoves are generally not accurate compared to commercial ones. So having an oven thermometer will put you on the safe side.
• When a recipe asks for packed brown sugar, don't press the sugar down onto the measuring cup so hard, it won't come out when you dump it into the batter. I remember doing this when I was learning how to bake. But of course, I was 10 years old. I packed all that brown sugar in the measuring cup like I was making sand castles! lol
• Stirring frequently and stirring vigorously are two totally different things. This is really important especially when you are making a syrup or melting sugar. When a recipe asks for you to stir frequently, it means to stir making sure that there are no sugar stuck to the sides of the pan ensuring that all the sugar is melting evenly and there is not a crust of unmelted sugar left on your pan when you're done. Also, stirring prevents the sugar from burning. When you stir sugar vigorously over heat, you are going to get crystalized sugar instead of the required melted sugar. ; ) So be gentle. 

Happy baking!!! :)