Let Them Eat Cake

Sometimes when I'm cooking Sunday dinner and I am stumped for a dessert to serve, I go to my longstanding fallback which is the Jiffy cake mix.  With just two of us in the house, baking a big box cake is ridiculous.  These Jiffy mixes are just the ticket.  It reminds me of the childhood Easy Bake oven only now I don't have to cook with a 100 watt light bulb, I get to use the big girl oven.  You just throw in an egg and a 1/2 cup of water to the mix, beat for 3-4 minutes and viola, a lovely one layer cake.

What I do with that one layer of perfectly done yellow cake is just a matter of my creativity that day.  Sometimes I split it into two layers and put a coating of cherry or raspberry preserves in the middle and dust the top with powdered sugar.  Perhaps I'm in the mood for frosting so my creativity will lean toward a new frosting such as caramel or a deep fudge.

Today pineapple upside down cake struck my fancy.  With no particular recipe to go by,  Here is what I did:

I mixed the cake mix with a combination of the pineapple juice from the can and a bit of water to equal 1/2 cup, added an egg,  then followed the box recipe for mixing it together.  In a 5 inch cast iron pan I melted 1/4 stick of butter.  On top of that I layered approximately 1/3 cup brown sugar.  I then layered 4 pineapple slices over the sugar/butter mixture.  The cake batter was then spread over all of it and into the oven it went at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes until it was golden brown and sprang back when pushed gently.

Once out of the oven I quickly went all around the pan with a thin knife and then inverted the cast iron pan over a plate and left it alone for 1/2 hour or so.  When I lifted up the pan, what delight to have it all come out in one piece!  I'm not always that lucky.  I then decorated this little lovely with some marischino cherries for the perfect old fashioned pineapple upside down cake touch.