Pineapple upside down cake reminds me of my childhood and the countless afternoons I spent watching my mother play bridge or mah jongg with her friends and the Wednesday evening potlucks at our local church. She always brought one of three dishes to those potlucks: spaghetti pie, seven layer dip or pineapple upside down cake. I miss it too, those comforting foods of middle America, but I’m no fan of margarine, cake mixes and sweet cherries laced with vivid red food coloring.
So, upon waking with a wicked hankering for pineapple upside down cake this morning, I took to my kitchen and whipped up this alternative which pairs pineapple with honey and one of my favorite flours for sweet treats: coconut.
Why coconut flour?
We minimize grain consumption in our home, and coconut flour makes a beautiful alternative to grain-based flours. Moreover, coconut flour is particularly well-suited to sweet treats and baked goods as it has a fluffy texture and is reminiscent of yellow cake when sweetened. Coconut flour is also rich in protein, fiber and fat and, unlike grain-based flours, it doesn’t require soaking (wondering about why you should soak grains? Click here). In this recipe, its soft cake-like texture and faint coconut flavor complements the pineapple well. It’s a natural choice.
Coconut flour is dense and absorbent and it requires lots of liquid, usually in the form of eggs to produce a palatable result. As a result, cakes and baked goods made with coconut flour are typically more dense in vitamins and healthy fats than those made from grain-based flours. You can learn more about baking with coconut flour here.
Where to find coconut flour
Coconut flour and oils are increasingly available in good quality and well-stocked health food stores, but it tends to be expensive for a small amount. I typically purchase my coconut flour in bulk online (see sources) to save money.
Coconut Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Sweetened by honey, this classic pineapple upside down cake is also suitable for dairy-free and grain-free diets.
ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups coconut flour (get it here)
- 1 cup blanched almond flour (get it here)
- 1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt (get it here)
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 cups full-fat coconut milk (get it here)
- 1 cup honey (get it here), divided
- 1 dozen eggs, beaten
- 2 teaspoons organic vanilla extract (get it here)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil (get it here)
- 12 pineapple rings, about 1/2-inch thick
- 1/4 cup dried cherries
equipment
- 12-inch cast iron skillet (like this)
method
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Whisk coconut flour, almond flour and unrefined sea salt together. Beat in coconut milk, 3/4 cup honey, eggs and vanilla and continue to beat them together until no clumps remain.
- Melt coconut oil in a 12-inch cast iron skillet over moderately high heat. Whisk in remaining 1/4 cup honey. When the honey and coconut oil foam and bubble, gently arrange pineapple into the skillet. Place dried cherries in the center of each pineapple ring and around the pineapple rings. Turn off the heat, pour in the cake batter and bake for forty-five minutes to one hour in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool for about five to ten minutes before inverting on a platter and serving.
YIELD: about 12 slices | TIME: 5 minutes (active), 5 minutes (stovetop), 45 minutes (oven)
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My husband wanted me to make a pinneaple upside down cake so I thought I would try your recipe. I was attracted to this recipe since it did not use flour and everything in it sounded good. I baked it for at least an hour and was afraid to leave it in any longer because the top was getting really brown and the center still looked like it was not completely done. Sorry but the cake was not good. It had the consistency of cooked mush and it was not salvageable.
Has anyone else tried this with success? I really want to make it, but I am not interested in wasting ingredients.
I’m going to try this recipe this week, to share in a family celebration. It seems to me though, that perhaps baking powder was left out of the list? And I’ll be sure to check my oven temperature to avoid over-browning the outside and leaving he middle mushy. Once we’ve shared the cake, I’ll write up what I think to share with you.
Actually, I’d advise you not to adjust the recipe. I think Lisa’s experience is an anomaly (what she described happening would happen if you substituted another flour for coconut/almond – I don’t know if she did or didn’t, though). Due to a site issue that occurred on 3/15, we lost all the comments from 8/2010 to 3/2012 and there were about 60 comments on this post from people who had tried the recipe as it was written almost all of them were resoundingly positive.
Also, coconut flour products don’t typically benefit from a rising agent like baking powder/soda. It doesn’t do much for them due to the nature of the flour.
Oh crud. It’s in the oven. I used baking powder, and oof-dah, I forgot the coconut milk! However, in the end I noticed the batter was way to stiff, so I added more than a cup of coconut kefir.
We’ll see how it does tomorrow.