Baking

Pineapple upside-down cake

Name: Pineapple upside-down cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 9
Cuisine: Australian
Ingredients: 60 g butter; 110 g (½ cup, firmly packed) brown sugar; 450 g can pineapple slices in syrup; 13 red glacé cherries; 125 g butter, extra; 110 g (½ cup, firmly packed) brown sugar, extra; 2 eggs; 300 g (2 cups) self-raising flour; 60 ml (¼ cup) milk

Serves 9 Prep 20 min Cook 60 min Total 1 hr 20 min

If you searched for pineapple upside-down cake and want the useful bits up front, you are in the right place: metric measures, a short intro, then ingredients, method, tip, and notes. As written it serves 9. Budget about 20 min to prep and 60 min to cook or bake, roughly 1 hr 20 min all up, across 9 ingredients and 5 method steps. Oven cue in the method is 180°C. Preheat fully; a cold start throws off the 1 hr 20 min timing and can leave centres underdone while edges race ahead. Good for weekend baking sessions and school-lunch tin fillers. One tray or tin as written — freeze extras in airtight bags. Keep Australian cup measures (250 ml) so the ratios match what we tested on the page. We write baking recipes so you can cook from your phone on the bench: large checkable ingredients, numbered steps, and notes you can skim while the pan heats.

Ingredients

60 g butter
110 g (½ cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
450 g can pineapple slices in syrup
13 red glacé cherries
125 g butter, extra
110 g (½ cup, firmly packed) brown sugar, extra
2 eggs
300 g (2 cups) self-raising flour
60 ml (¼ cup) milk

Method

Heat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 22 cm square cake pan.
Beat first butter and sugar; spread over base.
Drain pineapple, reserving 60 ml syrup. Arrange pineapple and cherries on base.
Beat extra butter and sugar until fluffy; beat in eggs. Fold in flour with syrup and milk. Spread over fruit.
Bake 1 hour. Stand 5 minutes; turn out onto a plate.

Tip: Serve warm with cream or ice cream.

Notes

Putting it together for Pineapple upside-down cake: work clean, taste as you go, and do not rush browning or reduction steps if they appear in the method. If you are cooking for mixed diets, plate sauces and toppings separately where practical. Keep this page bookmarked if it becomes a household regular — we update wording when cooks report a confusing step. Metric consistency across Scoops & Dishes means once you trust the cups and scales here, breakfast through dessert behaves the same way.
Texture check for baking: colour is a better guide than the timer alone. Edges should look set and golden; centres can finish on the residual heat. Cool on the tray briefly if the recipe says so — Pineapple upside-down cake often firms as it cools. Store airtight once fully cold so humidity does not soften the crust.
Why this page is written this way: we keep the story short and put the value in practical detail — ingredient order, heat cues, and storage — because that is what helps a home cook succeed on a Tuesday night. If a step feels unclear, email [email protected] and we will tidy the wording on the next pass.
Shopping and mise en place: read the full ingredient list once before you start. For Pineapple upside-down cake, butter and brown sugar are the items that decide whether the dish tastes flat or properly seasoned. Weigh where grams are given — volume cups are fine for liquids and some dry goods, but baking ratios are tighter if you use scales. Australian cups are 250 ml; a tablespoon is 20 ml and a teaspoon is 5 ml.