Happy 4th???

So…it’s the 4th of July. Time to celebrate our country’s beginning. Right now, there’s not a bunch worth celebrating. But there’s one thing I always think worth throwing a party for; my family. So today I got my family together, and we laughed. We played poker to see who got to pick the after dinner movie. We cooked together and gathered. And it was good. My daughter was with us for the first 4th in YEARS. Usually she spends the summer at camp. So to watch her face watching fireworks was magic. And I had to find a dessert that wasn’t chocolate. Because she HATES chocolate. I KNOW! I love her anyway :)

So I came up with Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Vanilla-y warm cake, brown sugar and caramelized pineapple. The fun cherries in the middle of the rings…it’s fantastic! And I finally have a cast iron skillet to make it in properly. You do NOT need a cast iron skillet, all you need to do is put the topping in the bottom of your cake pan and spoon the batter on top of that. But if you have one…it’s soooooo easy and good.

Ingredients:

1 2/3 C. AP Flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Sift these dry ingredients together and set aside.

8 tbls room temp butter

1 C. granulated sugar

Cream these two together

Separate two large eggs (yolks in one bowl, whites in another)

Add yolks to butter sugar mix and blend until smooth

Whip whites (you can do this by hand, it doesn’t have to be peaks) until frothy

1/2 C. milk

Alternate adding milk and flour mixture to the butter/sugar/yolks until all blended.

Fold in 1 tsp vanilla and egg whites.

Set aside

In your cast iron pan heat 4 tablespoons of butter with 3/4 C. brown sugar. (I added some aged dark rum here. seriously. yum) Add drained canned pineapple rings (I used the whole 12 oz can) Add maraschino cherries in the middle of the rings. Scoop your batter over the topping and put whole cast iron pan in oven at 350 degrees. Let it cook about 35 min or until toothpick inserted in cake part comes clean. Let cool for five minutes and using the serving platter, turn cake over. If any topping remains in pan, scoop it back onto the cake.

Serve warm. With vanilla ice cream. Or coconut ice cream. Or any damn thing you want.

Enjoy!