Pineapple upside down cake recipe: Machine-cut pineapples drenched in sugar syrup, how pretty and perfect! I used these babies in a pretty nice pineapple upside down cake recipe. I often end up baking with chocolate whenever I do bake and when I was asked to bring dessert for a potluck a few weeks back, I resolved not to let chocolate anywhere near the dish.

This recipe is slightly fansy-pansy. It calls for demerara sugar. I bought it just for this purpose, just so that I won’t screw up a second time.
Sidenote: Is demarara sugar available in India? If you know if a place, do leave a comment. Thanks!
Other cake recipes you may wish to try:
Christmas fruit cake
Orange cake with toffee sauce
Pineapple cupcake recipe
Flourless almond coconut cake
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Makes one 9″ cake
Adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor’s Cakes and Bakes
(Amazon | FlipKart)
Ingredients:
1 cup regular all purpose flour or maida
8 slices canned pineapple, drained
150gm / 3/4 cup butter at room temperature
3/4 cup demerara sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup milk (low fat works too)
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 190C / 275 F
2. Mix 1/4 cup butter with the demerara sugar and spread it at the bottom of a greased 9″ cake pan.
3. Arrange a layer of pineapple slices over it, slicing them to adjust and fill the gaps.
4. Sift the flour and baking powder. Keep aside.
5. Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl and add in the rest of the butter (1/2 cup) and the vanilla essence. Combine until smooth.
6. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Don’t overdo this otherwise the egg whites will turn dry.
7. Fold in the sifted sugar, one tablespoon at a time. Then fold in the egg yolk mixture.
8. And finally the flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time. Be gentle and only mix until the flour disappears into the batter. Don’t over-mix.
9. Pour the batter over the pineapple slices and bake for about 30-40 mins.
10. Make sure that you test the cake and not go by time because the first time I did that, I ended up under-baking the cake by about 10 mins or so. This one below is done perfectly!
The butter-sugar mixture will caramelize and come up a bit at the sides. Its yum!
Unfortunately, I don’t have a great final picture of the finished cake. I had to pack this in foil and take it for a party so no pics of slices.
It’s definitely tasty but I am not satisfied with it. I think pineapple, butter, sugar and flour can make something better – so the search is still on. Leave a comment if you have a great pineapple upside down cake recipe on your site!
You can get Demerara sugar at The General Additives store is Sheshadripuram and Nature’s Baskets stores in Bangalore.
thanks for the tip!
Hi Nags,
I got Demerera Sugar from Nilgiris in Chennai.
It's always available at the Nilgiris.
While searching for a similar recipe, I found your post on another blog with no credit to you.
http://maurenedenapoli.blogspot.com/2010/11/sanjeev-kapoor-pineapple-upside-down_15.html
Thanks a lot for letting me know. I have reported a DMCA complaint with Google.
Hey Nags…i made this 2day for my dad in law's bday. it took me about 1 hr 2 prepare n bake d cake. but it vanished in a few mins 🙂 thanks a ton
I found out i had i/2 cup of milk whch wasn't mentioned in the method when does the milk go in? i put it in the end but waiting to see what happens.I also found lumps which i never have in other cakes?please help
made this 2day for my dad inlaw's bday….took bout an hr 2 bake it. but it vanished in a few mins 🙂 thnks nags
Hi Nags….I am a complete self confessed non-cook and a recent relocation to Africa has made me adventurous enough to give cooking a shot. I stumbled on this recipe(incidently i love your blog!especially the step by step snaps) and tried it yesterday…well it turned out to be something of a 50-50 affair. While the taste was awesome..the cake rose while baking and then settled down (almost like a pudding, but not exactly)…the only deviation from your recipe was that i added 2 tbsp of the canned pineapple syrup (since i felt the mix was not free flowing enough) and that i used self raising flour and the baking powder…you mentioned that your first attempt was also similar. So what do you think could have possibly gone wrong?? ~ Rujuta
It's hard to say but I think the self-raising flour is probably one of the reasons. Also, you may have under baked it. I did that in the cake pictured above but whenI kept it around 12mins longer the next time I tried pineapple upside down cake, it worked great!
At what temperature are we supposed to bake the cake….???
its mentioned in the recipe. 190C
you can use any of the egg substitues like flax seed meal, yogurt, buttermilk, etc. I haven't tried any eggless pineapple upside down cake so i can't give you my experience for it.
heyy what if i want to exclude eggs??
Hi i tried this recipe yesterday. It tasted great. The demerara sugar i used was darker. So it fored a really dark crust. like you said it took longer in my oven-50 minutes.
So glad the pineapple upside down cake recipe worked for you. Mine needs to caramelize a bit more. Hoping to rectify it next time 🙂
absolutely! fresh pineapples work just as well in any pineapple upside down recipe
can we use fresh pineapple?
how much flour did u use? I couldnt see the measurement! I tried this sometime back too, not this recipe but the cake, and it turned out good, extra sweeeeeeeeeeeet for me!! did u get any other recipe? I am planning to use some in a veggie!
I don't know how I missed that!! The amount of flour is 1 cup 🙂
I tried to think so, but i found it was not as the same in the actual process. As you mentioned, I still have doubts, but really thank you for sharing!gucci handbags
After seeing your post I at once went searching for Demrara Sugar…..this was available in Dorabjee, Pune….. 🙂 Happy Baking!
I make pineapple upside down cake and comes out pretty nice, its my mum's recipe actually let me post it sometime next week… will leave a ling here when I do
And dermera is easily available here in blore, I actually use it pretty often too
Wow! My mom made some of this but she add chocolate syrup and I can tell you that it is delicious. You should better adding chocolate syrup too.
Love the first and last pic. So inviting and luscious!
Lovely cake. I remember I used to make this cake often. I did use a glazed cherry in the center of the pineapple rings before adding the batter. when turned the cake was turned out, it looked very pretty. I used to buy demerara sugar at the local baniya store, so it should be easily available everywhere.
I love your blog. Thanks.
Aparna Mulgund
Just too beautiful to eat!
looks yum…
Looks good, Pineapple would add a nice tangy flavour. Upside down cakes are my favorite and loved by all. I tried strawberry peach & apple but I am yet to try out a pineapple upside down cake.
I love the pic of the round pineapple slices. Most supermarkets in Chennai sell demerara sugar.
Amazing blog.. wow..! superb dish…. i like your post….
I see people have answered the question already. I got a packet of demerara sugar at nuts & spices once and also saw it at Nilgris. I dont know how to store it though, as it hardened up before I could use it. So every time I needed some, I'd use my pestle, break off a chunk and powder it in my faithful mixie.
cake looks yummy dear, but i think it should have caramelized a bit more towards the pineapple side.. any ways the cake look gorgeous just like you…I envy those who enjoyed it. hehehe.
Hey nags the pic looks really tempting 🙂
I have pineapple up side down cake recipe too..
u can check recipe….
http://dskrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/10/pineapple-up-side-down-cake.html
The came has turned out well. I am sure you must have been satisfied with that.
Beautiful looking cake, absolutely divine..
Suhaina, I agree! It could have become a bit more browner at the bottom but that would mean sanjeev kapoor's baking time instruction would be wrong by 20-25 nins and I was a bit alarmed at that. Will surely be trying my hand at this again 🙂
Looks wonderful…
Gosh.. I love the sugar bubbling on the sides!
Can't we just use brown sugar instead of the Dem sugar? I've got to make this one day – its been on my list for so long now that its almost forgotten! Looks pretty pretty!
Cake looks gorgeous:)
These days in Hyderabad we get all kinds of sugar – muscovado , demerara & the likes…
omg this looks so good,..i luv the step by step pictures,..wish u happy festival,..
U have a wonderful blog and this is one gorgeous recipe u have here!!
I absolutely love Upside down cakes and I feel Pineapple cake with tinned slices works best.I bake an eggless version from Nita Mehta's book which gives me perfect results every time.Here's the link to the post on my blog.
http://divyascookbook.blogspot.com/2008/11/pineapple-upside-down-cakeeggless-for.html
and yes,demerara sugar is available in almost all supermarkets in Chennai.
Looks lovely.
I made the some time ago and was quite satisfied with it (http://myjhola.blogspot.com/2009/06/upside-down-wonder.html) Even made a peach and apricot upside down after that( http://myjhola.blogspot.com/2009/08/sunny-side-up-for-filmmaker-bro.html). But I am curious to find out what you invent from the same set of ingredients!
The cake looks so tempting. Nice recipe 🙂
The cake looks yumm…Never attempted pineapple up-side down cake..I do not like fresh pineapple but I get tempted with those canned neatly cut pineapples in sugar syrup…Demerara sugar is available very easily here in mumbai in almost big stores and super markets.
What a lovely recipe….The lat pic is so so tempting…Delicious looking cake. I got demarara sugar once from Nuts & Spices, Chennai.