Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes – a mini version of your favorite cake with butter, brown sugar, pineapple, and a cherry on top! Good warm or at room temperature so they’re great for parties or luaus.

In a perfect world, I would make these from scratch. And by all means if you want to, go right ahead. But sometimes a doctored up cake mix does wonders. I mean adding brown sugar and butter to cake mix? Sounds like a sure win to me. These Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes have been calling to me for years. Try not to burn the top of your mouth off eating them straight out of the oven. I did.

I always have plenty of helpers in the kitchen. My son poured a teaspoon (or two) of butter in each cupcake tin. Then he put a tablespoon of brown sugar on top. Then he put a cherry right in the center of the brown sugar.

I tried using crushed pineapple and pineapple tidbits to see which one worked better.The crushed pineapple won the experiment by a long shot. It had way more flavor and looked prettier. The tidbits give a nice flower shape but most of them got stuck in the tin and the pineapple flavor wasn’t asstrong.

The cupcake batter is just made according to the package directions but with replacing the water in the recipe with pineapple juice. Make sure you don’t over fill your tins.

Invert the cooked cupcakes onto waxed or parchment paper and you’re done!

Print Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes
Serves: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients

• cooking spray
• ½ cup butter, melted
• 1½ cups brown sugar
• 24 maraschino cherries
• 1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple (reserve juice)
• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix (and oil and eggs called for on the package)
• 1⅓ cups pineapple juice (you just need as much pineapple juice as water called for on the cake mix package - see note)
• confectioners' sugar for dusting

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray 24 muffin cups with cooking spray.
2. Line a work surface with parchment or waxed paper.
3. Spoon 1 teaspoon melted butter into the bottom of each sprayed muffin cup.
4. Spoon 1 tablespoon brown sugar in each muffin cup.
5. Press a maraschino cherry into the center of the brown sugar in each muffin cup.
6. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of crushed pineapple over the cherry and compact it with the back of a spoon into an even layer.
7. Mix cake mix according to the package directions, replacing the water with pineapple juice. This may vary according to which cake mix you use. In large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until moistened, about 30 seconds. Turn mixer speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes.
8. Pour pineapple cake batter into the muffin cups, filling them almost to the top.
9. Bake in the preheated oven on the middle rack until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
10. Allow cupcakes to cool at least 5 minutes before inverting muffin cups onto the waxed paper to release. Serve with pineapple and cherry sides up. Sprinkle cupcakes lightly with confectioners' sugar if desired.

Notes Just replace the water called for in your cake mix with pineapple juice. You should be able to reserve the juice from the crushed pineapple and have enough pineapple juice to use here. If you are a little shy on the amount of juice, just use water to fill the rest of the liquid called for in the recipe.
*Some people like the look of pineapple tidbits better for this recipe. I tried both and the crushed pineapple has a lot more flavor and looked prettier.
Source: Allrecipes - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pineapple-upside-down-cupcakes/detail.aspx?mxt=t06dda
3.2.2885

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