I haven’t baked a cupcake in a few months. Life has gotten in the way too often for me to spend a couple of hours making and decorating baked goods. But I took the time to whip up some upside-down pineapple (or does “pineapple” come before “upside-down”?) cupcakes this weekend.
I found a recipe for the cupcakes on Pinterest. A classic Betty Crocker cake! I thought it was a sure thing. The prep time was only 20 minutes, but it took me more near 60 minutes. The cake mix was the easy part. I struggled with keeping the juice from flowing off my cutting board while I diced up the pineapple and cherries. I also made the mistake of letting the cherry juice sit on the wooden board for a few minutes instead of quickly washing it, so now my cutting board has a slightly red hue.
I also ran out of pineapple quarters for my last four cupcakes, so I had to go back and scale a few slivers off other pieces, cheating some of the cupcakes of their pineapple goodness. I’m sure no one noticed but me.
Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
- 1 can (20 oz) sliced pineapple, drained, juice reserved
- 1 box Betty Crocker™ SuperMoist™ yellow cake mix
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 12 maraschino cherries, cut in half
Directions
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 24 regular-size muffin cups with cooking spray. You want those babies to pop right out!
2. Cut each pineapple slice into 4 pieces (and some a little smaller!); set aside. In large bowl, beat cake mix, oil, eggs and reserved pineapple juice with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.
3. In small bowl, stir together melted butter and brown sugar. Spoon 1 1/2 teaspoons butter mixture into each muffin cup. First place cherry half, cut side up, in center of pineapple pieces. Then top each with 2 pineapple pieces. Spoon 1/4 cup batter into each cup.
4. Bake 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Run knife around edge of cupcakes to loosen; invert onto cookie sheet- you might need an extra pair of hands for this part.
I think they turned out really well. Not nearly as beautiful as the photo on Pinterest, but rarely does anything turn out that perfect.
My dog, Barry, watched me closely as I made them and patiently observed them on the counter as I snapped a few photos.
