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Photo courtesy of Kraft Foods.

The upside-down cake, which was so popular in the '50s and '60s, is again gaining in popularity. No wonder - it's still wonderful! Use your old cast-iron frying pan. The heavy pan keeps the butter from burning, and the handle makes it easy to flip the cake upside down when it is done.

According to most historians, the late 1800s were when the term “upside down cake” first began appearing. Up until that time, this type of cake was referred to as skillet cakes. This was because ovens have not always been common or reliable, skillet cakes were born of practicality. Cakes were made in the popular cast-iron skillets on top of the stove. Inverting a cake to reveal a topping was very popular as far back as the Middle Ages.

The first upside-down cakes were not even made with pineapple, but with seasonal fruits such as apples and cherries, as the canned pineapple hadn’t been invented yet. Canned pineapple manufacturing didn’t begin until 1901 when Jim Dole established the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (now Dole Company) and began producing and marketing mass quantities of canned pineapple.

In 1925, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company sponsored a contest calling for pineapple recipes with judgess from the Fannie Farmer’s School, Good Housekeeping, and McCall’s Magazine on the judging panel. It is said that 2,500 of the 60,000 submissions were recipes for pineapple upside-down cake. The company decided to run an ad about the flood of pineapple upside-down cake recipes it had received, and the cake’s popularity increased!

Pineapple upside-down cakes began appearing in magazines, cookbooks, and advertisements. In 1927, a booklet was published called Aunt Sammy's Radio Recipes, Developed by the Bureau of Home Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and written by Ruth Van Deman and Fanny Walker Yeatman.. The booklet was a compilation of 70 menus and about 300 recipes broadcast  from October 1926 to June 1927 in the "Housekeepers' Chat" programs of the radio service.

To learn How To Season A Cast-Iron Pan, click here.

Check out more of Linda's wonderful Cake Recipes.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Topping:
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 (1-pound, 4 ounce) can sliced pineapple
Maraschino Cherries
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a 10-inch cast-iron frying pan or a 9x2-inch cake pan over low heat, melt butter or margarine. Stir in brown sugar until blended. Remove from heat. Drain pineapple, reserving 2 tablespoons syrup. Arrange pineapple slices onto top of sugar mixture. Place a maraschino cherry in center of each slice. Sprinkle with chopped nuts.

Cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, room temperature
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add egg, milk, and vegetable shortening; beat 2 minutes. Add reserved pineapple syrup, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract; beat 2 minutes. Pour over pineapple slices in frying pan, spreading evenly.

Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes on a wire rack. Run knife around edge of pan to loosen; cover with a cake plate and invert. Serve warm.

Makes 8 servings.