My Dad wasn’t known for baking, but if he was in the kitchen other than mealtime, we knew what it meant. He was busy making whoopie pies or his favorite pineapple upside-down cake. There are many varieties of pineapple upside-down; from cookies and cakes to muffins and scones. Let’s look at its history before we get busy baking.
Pineapple was discovered in 1493 in Guadeloupe on one of Christopher Columbus’s many journeys. Upside down cakes were made with fruits other than pineapple and have been mentioned as far back as the late 1800s. Other discoveries show that skillet cakes were made in much the same way; back in the Middle Age period, with a cake being prepared, and left to cook in a cast-iron pan with fruit placed on top. It earned the term upside down from flipping the cake over, which resulted in a delicious tasting dessert from the juices in the fruit.
The pineapple upside-down cake became a rage in 1925 when the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (Dole) ran a contest with 2500 entries featuring pineapple upside-down cake and other pineapple recipes.
Pineapple Upside Down Cheesecake
Ingredients
- 5 packages softened cream cheese
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1¼ cups white sugar
- 4 tbsp Bisquick
- 4 eggs
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
- Maraschino cherries
- 1 can sliced pineapple (drained)
- 1¼ cups graham cracker crumbs
- 3 tbsp white sugar
- 3 tbsp melted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix two table spoons of brown sugar with two tablespoons of melted butter and spread on a greased pan. Top with the pineapple slices, and place a stemmed cherry into their centers.
- Mix one and one-quarter cups of graham crumbs, three tablespoons of white sugar, and three tablespoons of melted butter. Press gently onto the top of the pineapple slices.
- With electric beaters, mix five packages of cream cheese, one and one-quarter cups of white sugar, four tablespoons of Bisquick, and one cup of sour cream until blended. Add two teaspoons of vanilla and four eggs, and mix well. Pour on top of the graham crust mixture.
- Bake for approximately one hour, or until the sides pull away from the pan. Refrigerate for three hours before serving.
Pineapple Upside Down Cookies
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups softened butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream
- 5 cups Bisquick
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- ½ tsp salt
- 18 slices canned pineapple
- 18 maraschino cherries
- 1 cup melted butter
- 2 cups brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to three hundred and fifty degrees. In a large bowl, cream together one and three-quarter cups of softened butter with two cups of sugar. Add three eggs, two teaspoons of vanilla extract, and one cup of sour cream and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, whisk five cups of Bisquick, two teaspoons of cornstarch, and one-half teaspoon of salt. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together with an electric beater, until well combined.
- In a small bowl, stir together one cup of melted butter and two cups of brown sugar.
- In a greased muffin pan, add a tablespoon of the melted butter/brown sugar mix. Add a slice of pineapple to each and place the cherries in each center. Add four heaping teaspoons of batter to the top of each pineapple slice, spreading it out.
Pineapple and Coconut Upside Down Squares
Ingredients
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup butter
- ¾ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- 3½ cups Bisquick
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 3 egg whites
- 2 cups white sugar divided
- ¼ cups butter
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 cans pineapple chunks save the juice
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to three hundred and fifty degrees, and grease a large baking pan.
- On the stovetop, melt together one-half cup of butter and brown sugar. Add three-quarter cups of unsweetened coconut and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, blend three and one-half cups of Bisquick, one-half teaspoon of baking powder, and one-quarter tea spoon of salt.
- Whip three egg whites in another bowl with a mixer until stiff peaks form.
- Beat one cup of sugar and the three-quarter cups of butter in a bowl with a mixer. Add another cup of sugar, one cup of buttermilk, pineapple juice, three egg yolks, and one teaspoon of vanilla. Add the Bisquick mixture and mix until well combined. Gently fold in the egg whites.
- Place the butter/brown sugar mixture into the greased pan and arrange the pineapple chunks on top. Pour the batter over the top of the pineapple, and bake until done, and the top is brown. Let cool for half an hour. Flip the cake over. Serve and enjoy.
I think the best recipes are those that we take from memories and create as our own. I don’t remember seeing my Dad bake using a recipe, I just remember the taste. Although I have tried to recreate many recipes from memory, there always seems to be something missing. I hope you enjoy these recipes and find time to create memories of your own.
