Grandma’s Skillet Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

I made this for my significant other then my sons wife. You do not have to serve this cake warm, the sugar and butter caramelized and set up like pineapple caramel candy inside the topmost part of the cake and sinking in for an interesting texture, not bad, just interesting. So here it is a year later and the request is, you guessed it, but this year I set some pineapples in their own syrup overnight and going to make the cake with fresh pineapple I am 67 and remember it as being old when I was a kid

Two sticks per cake? This is not a pound cake and all that butter ruins the levening of the cake mix.

This is the 2nd time I’ve made it. I reduced the sugar in the cake to one cup as it was really sweet the first time. I might go even a little bit less next time. It is a beautiful cake, though, and reminds me of the one my Mom made in this same skillet. Thank you!

I’m 61 years old. I haven’t tried this recipe yet but my Mom made a Pineapple upside down cake in a cast iron skillet when I was a kid. I hate that I never learned her recipe before she past away. Her goal was to create a nice chewy, sugary caramelized “bottom” top and, based on pictures, this recipe looks like it accomplishes this goal. I’m hoping this is similar to her recipe.

I would not change a thing. Well Done. Beautiful when it came out of the oven and lovely when turned. Delicious .

This is my second attempt. I agree with some who think the brown sugar needs cut down which I did to one cup. I used a 12″ going pan and cut down the melted butter to 3/8 cup instead of the whole stick after the first attempt. Very delicious and easy to make

A tasty and functioning recipe. Nice cake. After reading reviews I used my 12″ Calphalon skillet which worked well. For me, it was cloyingly sweet. I will try again sometime cutting sugar in the batter by 1/3 and topping butter and sugar by one half.

This recipe was great! Using a 10″ cast iron skillet I would reduce the butter and sugar slightly. Using the recipe as is in a 12″ cast iron skillet would have been perfect. Next time I’ll try separating the eggs first and add whipped egg whites in at the end for more fluff.

This is the recipe I use for my son- in -law’s birthday cake. He loves pineapple upside down cake. My daughter who professes not to like pineapple upside down cake, even loves this one. I can’t imagine how many tries it takes to develop and perfect a winning recipe that works so well and I wouldn’t think of changing one ingredient, or measurement making this cake. Well done!

Best pineapple upside down cake I ever made. Like baking in cast iron. Followed recipe exactly…. Let sit 10 minutes before flipping. Excellent, only recipe I’ll ever use….sold!

It’s great! The cake is light and fluffy like a box mix. I used maybe only 4 tbsp of butter instead of an entire stick for the bottom/top. I reduced the brown sugar to about a 1/2 cup instead of 1 and 1/2 cups and added 2 tsp of Jack Daniels. Reduced white sugar to 1.25 cups instead of 1.5. Used buttermilk to activate the 1 tsp of baking soda I substituted for 1 of 2 tsp of baking powder. Substituted 1 tsp of Jack Daniels for 1 of the 2 tsps of vanilla extract.

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This was delicious! Based on the reviews about what pan size to use, I used a #8, my largest cast iron, and cut the recipe in half. The pineapples fit beautifully in the #8. As you can see from the photo, it ended up being a rather thin cake. Next time I’m either going to try cutting the recipe in half again and using my #6 pan or doing the full recipe in my #8. The only reason I rated this recipe 4 stars instead of 5 was because there’s no pan size listed.

This is the best pineapple upside down cake I’ve ever eaten. Getting ready to make it again.

Looks Great! Happy Birthday, Sally!!!

I made this cake following the recipe….it was very good

15″ CAST IRON SKILLET — Given how much of each ingredient this recipe calls for, this is clearly a recipe for a 15″ cast iron skillet, not a 12″, 10″, or 9″. I say that because it uses three times the measurements used in 9″ cast iron skillet recipes, which are 1/3 the volume of a 15″ cast iron skillet, so instead of 1/2 cup of brown sugar, it calls for 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar, for example. Even though a 9″ diameter isn’t 1/3 of a 15″ diameter, the area and volume of a 9″ circular pan is 1/3 that of a 15″ pan of the same depth. So if you don’t have a 15″ cast iron skillet, you will need to make adjustments to the recipe, like if you have a 9″ cast iron skillet, you can use it to make 3 cakes, and baking time and temperature won’t be affected since the batter thickness will be the same as in the 15″ skillet, but feel free to turn the oven light on and check on it a few minutes early, or if you if you have a 12″ cast iron skillet, you could either reduce all the ingredients by 1/3 or, since that could be tricky, double the recipe and make 2 cakes, using half the ingredients in each, which again, the baking time and temp wouldn’t be affected. By the way, if you opt for using this recipe to make multiple cakes in a smaller skillet but only have one skillet, that’s OK. Simply set the extra batter, pineapple, brown sugar, etc. aside while the first one is baking. They’ll keep. When it’s done and you’ve plated it, simply wipe the skillet out with a cloth or paper towel and then use it again for the next one. My grandma only had a 9″ cast iron skillet, and I don’t know if she doubled her recipe because one 9″ cake wasn’t enough for everybody or if her recipe was simply for two 9″ cast iron skillets or what, but whatever the case, she ALWAYS made TWO, but not having two 9″ cast iron skillets, she ALWAYS set half the batter and other ingredients aside while the first one baked and then simply wiped out the pan with a cloth and then combined the remaining ingredients into it for baking the second when the first one was done. The second ALWAYS turned out as well as the first– that is to say that come suppertime, you couldn’t tell which was which as they were the same, so the mixed batter definitely will keep while the first one is baking. Just put them in the fridge until about 5 to 10 minutes before the one you have in the oven is done baking.

Followed the recipe exactly. Wouldn’t change a thing!

This was a big hit! I used pineapple chunks, arranged them nicely without cherries. Nobody missed them. It was easy to stir together. May have baked longer to get it done, did not time it, just baked until it tested done.

I was thrilled. This is the recipe I received from my mother-in-law about forty years ago. It makes the best pineapple upside down cake I’ve ever eaten. It’s even good cold (leftover). I had to add 15 minutes cooking time after covering browned cake with foil. The results are perfectly delicious.

This is the best Pineapple Upside Down Cake I’ve ever eaten.