April 20 National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day #PineappleUpsideDownCakeDay I wish I had asked David to have picked up a Cake Mix when he was at Walmart picking up a gallon of Milo’s Sweet Tea. But even if he had we couldn’t have cooked in our house which is upside down from cleaning out our storage. Before you ask upside down yes, upside down. It looks worse than a herders home.
For those of us who didn’t know National Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Day, is celebrated annually on April 20, encouraging us you to try a bit of Pineapple Upside Down Cake. Pineapple Upside Down Cake has been dubbed one of the most popular recipes of the 20th Century. There are dozens of variations that will fit the needs of any palette. For example, if you’d like to amp up the tropical factor in your Pineapple Upside Down Cake, go ahead and add a splash of dark Rum to the batter.
While the history of National Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Day is unclear, the history of the dessert itself is well-documented and well-loved. Hundreds of years ago, people used cast-iron skillets to cook Fruit cakes over open flames. Any type of Fruit would produce a delicious tasting cake. With the Fruit lining the bottom of the skillet and cake batter added over the Fruit, the pan would be flipped after cooking, revealing a beautiful showing of caramelized Fruit on top.
Did you know the earliest cast-iron skillets were called ‘spiders’ because they had legs. The cakes themselves were commonly known at this time as ‘Spider Cakes.’ Something I hadn’t ever heard of. Had you? Once ovens became a fixture in the homes of Americans, the skillets lost their legs, transitioning to a flat-bottomed pan that would more easily fit into the ovens.
In 1925, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company sponsored a contest to find the best Pineapple recipes. With “Good Housekeeping” and “McCall’s” magazines promoting the contest, over 60,000 submissions were entered. Of those, 2,500 recipes were for Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. Pineapple Upside Down’s Cake’s popularity soared with the publishing of 100 of the winning recipes in a cookbook the next year.
NATIONAL PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE DAY ACTIVITIES
- Canned Pineapple rings taste perfectly fine in every Pineapple Upside-Down cake recipe, but nothing beats fresh Pineapple. Cutting your own Pineapple is an adventure in itself. before you say I don’t know how to cut a Pineapple google ways to cut the fresh Pineapple, in rings for a Pineapple Upside Down Cake or into smaller pieces for cooking.
- Did you know a Pineapple Upside-Down Cake can be made ahead of time so if you are looking for a simple and easily transportable dessert, look no further
FACTS ABOUT PINEAPPLES
- Annually, just under 28 million tons of Pineapples are produced all over the world with the greatest production serving the U.S. coming from Costa Rica.
- Raw Pineapple pulp is 86% water.
- Pineapples are rich in vitamin C and loaded with antioxidants.
- Did you know a Pineapple is not a single fruit but a group of Berries that have grown together. This was news to me. .
WHY PEOPLE LOVE NATIONAL PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE DAY
- A fun way to serve Pineapple Upside-Down Cake is in individual ramekins. Just match the ramekin size to a Pineapple ring and continue using whatever recipe you love most. It will be just as tasty as if you had made one cake but will be a cool way to serve at your next dinner party.
- When you make the final flip of the Pineapple Upside Down Cake onto your cake server, you realize this is the star of the show.
- The Pineapple has long been considered a symbol of hospitality and this idea and tradition began with Caribbean Indians who placed Pineapples at the entrance of their homes.
Recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 can (20 oz) pineapple slices in juice, drained, juice reserved
- 1 jar (6 oz) maraschino cherries without stems, drained (about 18 cherries)
- 1 box Betty Crocker™ Super Moist™ Yellow Cake Mix
- Vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box
- Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Melt butter in 13×9-inch pan in oven.
- 2.Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter. Arrange pineapple slices on brown sugar. Place cherry in center of each pineapple slice, and arrange remaining cherries around slices; press gently into brown sugar.
- Add enough water to reserved pineapple juice to measure 1 cup.
- Make cake batter as directed on box, substituting pineapple juice mixture for the water. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
