Pineapple upside-down cake
Here's something most people don't know about me. I get major, major cravings for food. Not a category of food, like say, "chips," but a very specific food within a category, such as "Honey Dijon Kettle chips."
Sometimes it's fancy, sometimes it's plain. When I was living in the dorms my during freshman year, I would get cravings for white rice. Plain, white, sticky. No butter, no salt, no spices of any kind. Just Asian-style white rice. Unfortunately the dining halls never served it, so I used to go home and have my mom put a ton of cooked rice in a tupperware container to keep in our little fridge.
Anyway, I went to the market last night to pick up some necessities, and while in the canned fruit/veggies aisle I caught sight of the canned pineapples. Suddenly, I wanted pineapple upside down cake right. This. Second.
The funny thing is, I've never had pineapple upside-down cake before.
I came home and looked up some recipes, and ended up deciding on this one, even though I don't have a 10" pan. I decided I could use a 9" one instead. I also don't have almonds on hand, but I figured I could omit them.
I had to wait until this morning to make it, but as soon as the boyfriend was out the door, I was in the kitchen caramelizing sugar.
This cake really hits the spot. It's uber-dense without being dry, and the caramel oozes into every little crevice in the pineapple slices. Also, the pineapple sizzles a little when you put it in the pan with the hot caramel.
Mmmmmmm.
Since I used a smaller pan than the recipe calls for, I had enough batter left over to make five cupcakes, which I topped with half a pineapple slice each, with some leftover caramel spooned on top.
Next time, I'll probably try to get some almonds for the batter, and use fresh pineapple. I used the "new" way of doing the caramel (the italicized bit at the bottom of the recipe), and I can't imagine that any other way would be better.