Pineapple upside-down cake.

Quit your job

Buy a ticket 

Get a tan

Fall in love 

...and Never return

On a July afternoon a painter was leaving town. All his life he wanted to make money selling his panting.  After ten years of futile efforts he figured Miami was not interested in his art. He decided to leave town and on his way tout, he  saw a big newly opened store window. With angry strokes, he wrote the above lines. 

Another  explorer was leaving town that very night. He was in Miami for a short stopover before heading off to his campsite in the Everglades. His campsite was his home from home in Ireland. He spent about eight months tucked down in the glades. He stopped for a smoke on his way to the station. When he looked up he saw the freshly painted words on the store window.

I  was in Miami a couple of years ago. Seeing these words scrolled on a store window I got curious. It turned out to be a T shirt message writing service. While I was waiting for the same words to be scrolled on a white T shirt, in walked the owner. A businessman to the hilt. We got chatting and I remarked on the lucky one who managed to take a vacation and never return. The owner smiled, tipped his hat and walked away.

Later I learned...that night the explore after his smoke, went into the desert place next to the store and ordered a slice of upside down pineapple cake.  He bit into it absentmindedly. But as the moist, sugary, caramelized pineapple slice struck his palette, it was like lightening. He was speechless. He ordered a whole cake. And then another and then another. Three cakes down and a owner speechless later, he walked out. The next day he bought the store and opened a T shirt writing business. The best in town. 

Guess the painter did not know what he was missing that day he left for good.

 

If you are here for a stopver, you can leave. And if you are planning on a vacation from this blog, you can't anymore. For here is that Pineapple Upside down cake that turned the explorer into businessman and without which a businessman turned into an explorer (?).
Can't win either way :)

Upside down Pineapple cake (recipe adapted from Paula Dean)

2 cup all purpose flour + 1 tsp for dusting

1 1/4^th  cup sugar

1 stick of butter molten + 1/3^th stick molten separately + 1 tsp for coating the pan

1 tsp of vanilla

1 tsp of baking powder

3 eggs

1 cup of milk

1/8^th tsp of  salt

1 can of sliced pineapple.

1 cup pf brown sugar

1 9 inch round pan

Butter and dust the pan
Spread the brown sugar on the pan. Coated the bottom completely.
Pour 1/3^th stick of molten butter evenly on top of the sugar. Now place the four slices.

In a bowl beat the rest (1 stick of butter) for 2 mins.
Add the sugar slowly and keep beating till foamy. About 3 mins.
Add the eggs one at a time and keep beating well after adding each one.
Now add the vanilla.  

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking powder.
Add the dry mixture to the egg-sugar –butter mixture. BUT along with the milk. Start with the flour mixture followed by the milk. Do this is three installments, beginning and ending with flour. Beat well.

Now, carefully spread the batter over the pineapple in the baking pan.

Preheat oven to 350F for 8 mins. Place the pan in the warm oven and bake for 1 hour, or till tooth pick comes out clean when inserted in the center

Turn off oven and let the  cake rest inside the warm oven for 15-20 mins. Take it out and let it cool completely. 1 hr.

Loosen the edges by running a knife around the edges in a smooth motion. Place your hand on the cake and carefully flip the pan. Tap the back of the pan gently till cake comes out :)

Happy eating and healthy living!