This sheet cake style Pineapple Upside Down Cake is made with fresh pineapple. While baking, the pineapple juice combines with buttery brown sugar that forms a beautiful caramelized sauce for the cake. Serve it warm with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and savor each and every glorious bite.
Homemade Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe
What is pineapple upside down cake? It's a cake that begins with pineapple slices on the bottom of the baking pan. Embellished with maraschino cherries and often pecan halves, it's smothered with a butter and brown sugar sauce. After pouring the batter on top, it's baked and cooled, then flipped over for serving, hence the name. This homemade cake was one of our family's special birthday traditions as it was my brothers pick every single year for his birthday dessert.
How to Make the Best Southern Pineapple Upside Down Cake
How is this upside down cake different from other recipes? This version is a bit different from a traditional upside down cake in that I use fresh pineapple slices and it's made in a 13 x 9 inch pan instead of in a skillet or round pan.
- What will I need to make Southern pineapple upside down cake ? You'll need a medium size fresh pineapple that's been peeled, cored and sliced. To mix the batter, you'll need a stand or hand mixer, mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons as well as a 13 x 9 inch baking pan. A small bowl to melt the butter and a large silicone spatula to scrape the batter from the mixing bowl. A small bowl to melt the butter and a cooling rack. You'll also need a large platter for flipping the cake over for serving.
- What ingredients will I need? You'll need cake flour, brown sugar, salt, vanilla, baking powder, salt, buttermilk, eggs, fresh pineapple slices and maraschino cherries.
- Can I use all purpose flour to make this cake? Yes, you can in the same amount. Cake flour will result in a more tender crumb to the cake.
- Can I use canned pineapple slices? Yes, you can. Drain well and proceed with the recipe as written.
- Please note, fresh pineapple slices release juice while baking that combines with the brown sugar to form a sweet caramel-like sauce. Being a toffee and caramel lover, I've always loved the gooey, chewy, drippy, buttery caramel sauce that forms on the top and drips down the sides of this cake.
- You can store this cake chilled for up to 5 days.
How to Choose a Fresh Pineapple
- Choose a medium-size fresh pineapple that's golden, not one with a very green skin.
- The pineapple slices can vary in size depending on the actual pineapple you use.
- As you can see in the pictures, the slices may overlap a bit. If you prefer they not overlap, then simply cut a small piece out of each slice and fit them onto the cake flat.
- This cake must be served while gooey and warm with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. See also Crockpot Cherry Pineapple Dump Cake and Pineapple Upside Down Muffins.
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Helpful Kitchen Items:
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup butter softened and divided
- 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
- 12 slices fresh or canned pineapple
- 12 maraschino cherries no stem
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 2 ⅔ cups cake flour
- 3 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- whipped cream or ice cream for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a non stick metal 13 x 9 inch pan with baking spray.
- On the stove top in a small saucepan, melt together ½ cup butter with 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar. Cook just until combined then remove from the heat and spread into the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Arrange the pineapple slices on top and place a maraschino cherry in the center of each slice.
- In a mixing bowl, cream together the remaining ¾ cup butter, sugar and vanilla
- Add the eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition.
- Sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the creamed mixture alternately with the buttermilk beginning and ending with flour.
- Spread batter evenly over the pineapple slices. The batter will be thick.
- Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes back clean.
- Remove from the oven and rest for 5 minutes. Invert onto a serving platter.
- Leave the pan on top for a couple of minutes to allow all of the caramel to drip down the sides of the cake.
- Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
Notes
Nutrition
My name is Melissa and I'm the Creator of Melissa's Southern Style Kitchen. Cooking, baking, developing recipes and kitchen tips is my passion. I love sharing my dishes and connecting with people through the food that I create.
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Alice M. Vanko
I needed a large pineapple upside down cake recipe to make a 9x13 size cake. This recipe came out delicious with plenty of brown sugar for the topping. Using cake flour and buttermilk ensured a tender crumb cake. I was only surprised that some of the pineapple juice wasn’t used in the batter so I added about 1/4 cup to the buttermilk. This will definitely be my go-to recipe for this cake!
Betsy Cadle
My grandson and daughter in-law and 3 grandchildren came over for dinner tonight and I made this recipe for desert and was a HUGE success!! Will be making it again soon!!
Melissa
Thanks so much!
Melissa
This cake has quickly become our family favorite! I add cinnamon in my cake batter for a variation and it is amazing!!
Melissa
Love that addition, thanks!
Mary
Is it possible for you ytopublishthis recipe for a 9 inch round pan? I like the look and serving size of a round.
Melissa
I'll consider that in the future, thanks.
Cary w
I’ve made so many of these looking for the one my husbands mother made him when he was a kid.
This is the best cake ever. He was so happy! Thank you for sharing !
Melissa
Wonderful, thanks so much!
Katherine Dunn
This is the best pineapple upside down cake I've ever had!!! I'm making 2 today. One for a party and one for home!
Thank you so much for this recipe!
Melissa
Thank you so much!
Vickie Lousuebsakul
Very good recipe, the cake is moist, test good and look very pretty. 👍
William
I made this cake as a birthday gift and it was amazing!
Melissa
Wonderful, thanks so much!
Fran
Can you use all purpose flour if you don’t have cake flour?
Melissa
Yes, you can.
Sueb
So we made the cake and took it to our family home evening. Even with all the other great dishes, people came back to the cake 3 and 4 times ! We made minimal changes. Put the pa rings on the outside and crushed pineapple down the center. Added half a stick of butter and a bit more brown sugar because of the added p.a.. This is a keeper 🤗 Thank you for sharing
Melissa
I'm delighted you enjoyed this, thanks!
Sue
Butter comes in different sizes. It would be nice to know exactly how much your 1 stick of butter is. Love PUD cake too. Making one today so I'm looking forward to tasting how it turns out !
Michele
I just made this cake ; used a 9x13 tin pan; followed all the directions . The brown sugar was a little too much ; will definitely cut back on that next time. Other than that; it came out DELICIOUS!!
Melissa
Fresh pineapple makes the difference. Glad you enjoyed this one.
Sue
This is delicious! Made in my cast iron skillet. Cooked at 350 for about 45 minutes. Will cut back on the brown sugar next time but it was really good....Thank you!
Sandra
Thank you so much! One more question. Have you ever made this cake with pecans in the topping? The recipe I have used in the past had pecans and we really liked it but I really don't want to take a chance on messing your recipe up. I am making this at my Dad's tomorrow for his birthday. Decided I wanted to serve it fresh and they live out of town. Wish me luck!
Melissa
Nuts would be a great addition, go for it!
Danno
I was wondering if you could use heavy cream vs buttermilk. I can’t wait to make this for a very dear friend’s birthday. I’ve become the cake maker for our small group of friends. Thanks Melissa
Melissa
You're a great friend! You could swap out buttermilk for heavy cream, yes.
Sandra
I have to make this cake the night before for my Dad's birthday. Any way to warm it or should I serve cold or room temperature? Thank you!
Melissa
I typically serve this cake room temperature but, it's truly up to your personal preference. If you store it chilled, just take it out of the fridge to give it time to warm.
Mary d
Was going to make this for tomorrow, will it be just a gooshort not served hot?
Melissa
It will be, yes. Enjoy!
Ash
So this is the very first cake I'm making completely from scratch. It was a really easy recipe and though it's still baking in the oven it looks absolutely amazing so far. 🙂
Melissa
I'm so happy you chose this for your first adventure! Expect this to be juicy it's a favorite of ours, good luck!
Shelby
This is the most AMAZING upside cake I have ever made. My island born husband loves it as do my kids. This will be my go to pineapple upside down cake. Super moist, faultless on point and perfect! Thank you so much!
Melissa
Wonderful, so happy you enjoyed this one, thanks for letting me know!
Amy
I made this cake and it was excellent. I have always used canned pineapple for upside down cake, but used fresh for this recipe. It was heavenly and my whole family loved it. My husband has few desserts that he really loves, but he has already asked me to make this recipe again. It's a keeper! Thank you!
Melissa
Hi Amy, fresh pineapple makes THE most delicious sauce I'm so happy you loved this, too! Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know.