Vegan Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Recipe

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A tasty vegan pineapple upside-down cake that is juicy and decadent with pineapple, cherries and brown sugar caramel on top.

This is a beautiful cake that you can prepare at any time of the year since you’ll be using canned pineapple and it has an impressive bounty taste that indicates something secret has been used e.g a booze but there isn’t any. It tastes like a rich pineapple.

Glazed and moist pineapple pieces combined with a moist vanilla cake. Is there anything better than this?

For this vegan pineapple upside-down cake version, I endeavored to make something closer to the conventional non-vegan recipe with eggs and milk. However, I did not want this to be extra fussy. And it came out to be perfect-it’s all about pineapple and brown sugar in a skillet and a super simple cake batter prepared with applesauce, oil reserved pineapple juice, sugar and nothing more.

The first time I made this, I kind of winged to myself and it turned out to be great! I was thrilled and totally happy with the results. Getting a recipe to turn out so perfectly the very first time you try it is like hitting the jackpot for a food blogger like me.

Yes, we have the pineapple slices which we are going to caramelize with brown sugar in a pan so make sure you have all these around.

Then we add some maraschino cherries. I personally went for vegetable-dyed maraschinos but you may follow the more traditional route if you wish.

Ingredients

Pineapple level:

• 2 tbsp vegan butter

• ½ cup dark brown sugar

• 1 (20. oz) can pineapple slices, drained

• 1 (20. oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained well

Cake Ingredients:

• ½ cup canola oil

• ½ cup applesauce

• ½ cup granulated sugar

• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

• ⅓ cup pineapple juice

• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

• 2 tbsp bp powder

• ¼ tsp fine sea salt

Utensils:

• 1 10” cast-iron skillet

• 12” or bigger cake platter

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.

2. Put the skillet over medium heat and add the butter to melt. After it melts, add in the brown sugar and cook, whisking constantly until the sugar is dissolved completely, about a couple of minutes. Take off the heat and add the sliced and drained pineapple. Arrange the maraschino cherries in the pineapple loops. Place drained crushed pineapple into the sides and on the top and make sure that all is used.

3. In a big mixing bowl, combine the sugar, canola oil, reserved pineapple juice and vanilla extract. Arrange the fine-mesh sieve on the top of the mixing bowl. Sift all the dry ingredients e.g. flour over the liquid ones. Use a wooden spoon or silicone spatula to whisk everything together until well combined.

4. Spread the cake batter over the top of the pineapple evenly. Bake for approx. 35 minutes or until the cake starts to become golden brown over the top and once you insert a small knife or toothpick, it comes out clean.

5. Take off the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes or so.

6. It’s time to turn it over so have a big cake plate and tray ready. Unstick the cake sides with a butter knife and flip the cake with the plate upside down.

7. Serve with some vanilla ice cream or vegan heavy cream on top for extra deliciousness. If not served immediately, you may keep it in the fridge for 3 days max.