Learn how to make these amazingly delicious pineapple upside down cupcakes! No boxed cake mix here! If you don’t want to make individual sized servings, you can very easily make this in a regular 9″x13″ pan. But they look much cuter as cupcakes. 😉
What you’ll need:
2 (20oz) cans pineapple rings
2-1/4c AP flour
1-1/2c sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 c milk
1/4 c reserved pineapple juice
1 stick (1/2 c butter or margarine, softened)
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
6 Tbsp butter or margarine (for topping)
1-1/4 c brown sugar (for topping)
maraschino cherries
Preheat oven to 350*F. Drain pineapple, reserving 1/4 cup of the juice for use in the cake batter. In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add in milk, pineapple juice, butter or margarine, vegetable oil and vanilla. On low speed, mix until combined and then turn speed up to medium or medium-high and beat 2 full minutes. Add in the eggs and beat another 2 full minutes on medium to medium-high speed. Set batter aside.
In a regular sized muffin tin, place 1/4 Tbsp of butter into each muffin slot. Put into oven for about 2 minutes just to melt the butter. Remove from oven and add 1 Tbsp of brown sugar to each slot. Stir with the melted butter with a toothpick to combine. Take a pineapple slice and cut out about 1/4 of the ring and bring the ends together and place into the bottom of the muffin slots. Press pineapple ring down to set it into the butter and brown sugar mixture. Pour 1/4 cup of cake batter into each muffin slot or until batter is just shy of the top rim. It will not overflow in the oven. Bake at 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cool 2-3 minutes before turning out. After turning out, place a maraschino cherry into the center of each cupcake and serve. Makes about 20 cupcakes. Enjoy!!
**If you opt to not make the cupcakes, you can add 1 stick (8 Tbsp) of butter or margarine, melted, into a 9″x13″ pan and stir in 1-1/2 cups brown sugar. Doing this will also only use about 15 pineapple rings if you do not cut them.
