Individual Pineapple Upside Down Cakes

I recently was given this beautiful hutch. I reorganized some of my plates and serving pieces and consequently found some things that I had forgotten I had. One of those things was my set of 10 individual ramekins...what a great find! Of course, I had to find something right away to use them.

Individual Pineapple Upside Down Cakes!

I am not a huge lover of this dessert, but I happened to come across a recipe and decided to make it individual sized.

The canned pineapple slices fit perfectly in the bottom of each ramekin, with half of a maraschino cherry in the middle. The cake recipe came together perfectly for 10 ramekins. I used 100% home ground whole wheat flour, so the cake had a nutty, very healthy taste, but was dense and very good. It did not taste anything like the pineapple cake I have had before, so to me it was actually much better.

Once baked and cooled, I turned them upside down on plates to serve. They came out very easily. Other than adjusting the flour, I used the recipe exactly as written below.

Topping:
4 T. butter, melted

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 20-oz. can sliced pineapple, drained

maraschino cherries, halved

Cake:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup sugar

2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup milk

1 t. vanilla extract

1 t. lemon juice

1 egg

Preheat oven to 350. Pour melted butter into 9x9 baking pan (or distribute evenly between ramekins). Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter. Arrange pineapple and fill spaces with cherry halves.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add oil and milk and beat a lowest speed just to blend. Beat for an additional 2 minutes at medium speed. Add vanilla, lemon juice and egg. Beat 2 minutes longer, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter evenly over fruit.

Bake 40-50 minutes (or 20-30 for individual size) or until cake is golden brown and pulls away from sides of pan. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm.