Pineapple Upside Down Cake: Times Three

Pineapple Upside Down Cake (PUSDC) is such a classic. We all know it's delicious. Leave it to Paula Deen to make it something even better (and use a full pound of butter!) In Paula Deen's Holiday Baking she has a recipe for a double decker pineapple upside down cake with a pineapple buttercream. What could be better? It's so beautiful in the magazine and I love PUSDC so it seemed like just the dessert for Easter dinner.

Paula makes a 2 Layer PUSDC, but even though I used 9 inch pans like the recipe said, I had enough batter for a third layer. We started to keep the other layer just for our dessert tonight, but I really like a three layer cake better than a two layer (looks wise anyway) so I stacked it high. Her recipe also calls for a regular buttercream frosting but I prefer a cream cheese frosting so I made that instead. It was SO DELICIOUS. Everyone raved over it and I thought it was pretty damn good myself.

Here is Paula's recipe:

1 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cups sugar
5 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups whole buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 (20 ounce) cans pineapple slices in juice, drained well (reserve 2 Tbl juice for frosting)
1 (10 ounce) jar marashino cherries, drained well

Preheat oven to 350. Spray 2 (or for me it took 3) 9 inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray with flour.

In a large bowl, beat 1 cup butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; sift twice. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Pour 1/4 cup melted butter into each prepared pan. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter in each pan. Arrange pineapple slices and cherries over brown sugar. Reserve remaining pineapple slices and cherries for another use. (Using 3 pans, it took all of the pineapple slices)



Pour batter evenly over fruit



Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cakes cool in pans for 10 minutes. Invert cakes onto wire racks to cool completely.



To assemble cake, carefully place one cake layer, pineapple side up on a cake plate. Carefully stack remaining layer, pineapple side up over first layer. (I added a thin layer of frosting to help anchor the layers) Frost sides of cake with Pineapple Buttercream Frosting. Press chopped pecans into sides of cake, if desired.

Pineapple Buttercream Frosting:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 TBL reserved pineapple juice from can
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

(I made cream cheese frosting so I added an 8 oz block of cream cheese and more pineapple juice and extra sugar. I didn't measure the sugar, I just sifted and poured until I looked right. )

In a medium bowl, beat butter and pineapple juice at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth.