Pineapple Upside Down Cake - make this now, it's amazing!

So being that I now have the time to experiment in the kitchen, and am trying all sorts of new things, I thought  would post the ones that I liked the best on here for the sake of not losing the recipes, and so you could give them a try.

I am not a huge fan of pineapple, but I planted pineapple plants in my garden a few weeks ago. Turns out that to plant those, all you do is chop the top off a pineapple and stick in the ground. This left me with 8 pineapples to do something with. I will share two of the recipes. This one was by far the most popular. Rave reviews from everyone at the potluck as well as people we have had over for dinner. So moist and delicious.

fresh market pineapple

Ingredients:

4 eggs
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 (20 ounce) can sliced pineapple (I used 20 ounce fresh chopped pineapple)
10 maraschino cherries, halved
1 cup sifted cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1cup white sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

2. In a 10 inch heavy skillet with a heat resistant handle, melt 1/2 cup butter or margarine over very low heat. Remove from heat, and sprinkle brown sugar evenly over pan. Arrange pineapple slices to cover bottom of skillet. Distribute cherries around pineapple; set aside.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.

4. Separate the eggs into two bowls. In a large bowl, beat egg whites just until soft peaks form. Add granulated sugar gradually, beating well after each addition. Beat until stiff peaks form. In a small bowl, beat egg yolks at high speed until very thick and yellow. With a wire whisk or rubber scraper, using an over-and-under motion, gently fold egg yolks and flour mixture into whites until blended. Fold in 1 tablespoon melted butter or margarine and almond extract. Spread batter evenly over pineapple in skillet.

5. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until surface springs back when gently pressed with fingertip. Loosen the edges of the cake with table knife. Cool the cake for 5 minutes before inverting onto serving plate.

Not beautiful but I promise it is oh so delicious. Top it with whipped cream and you'll never want another kind of cake again!

*** I do not have a cast iron skillet, or one with a heat resistant handle. I have a pie pan that is large, so I made the cake in it and just melted the butter in a little pot and transferred it. The surface of the cake is brown and mine was cracked a bit when finished. Also, make sure you gently do the loosening with knife so that you don't gouge the sides of your cake, but do not skip this step. It will not come out of the pan when you flip it over otherwise.

Recipe credit from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Old-Fashioned-Pineapple-Upside-Down-Cake/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Thumb&e11=old%20fashioned%20pinapple%20upside%20down%20cake&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page&soid=sr_results_p1i1