It seemed so comforting to make this wonderfully rich, sweet cake as we got pelted by snow and ice earlier this week. It’s a messy cake to prepare: lots of  sifting of flour, powdery confectioner’s sugar, brown sugar and  tons of butter. Sometimes I use equal amounts of light-brown and dark-brown sugar (for ease of preparation weigh the two sugars to equal 430 grams or 14 ounces instead of packing them  into 2 measuring cups).

Pineapple upside-down cake

The topping of brown sugar is mixed with melted butter and pineapple juice from the canned pineapple rings that are put on top.  After unmolding the cake from the tube pan put it on a large, rimmed plate to catch all the syrup that’s produced in baking.  You don’t need anything else to serve with this cake unless you want to gild it with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream.

Pineapple upside-down cake with vanilla ice cream