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Golden pineapple upside-down cake with seven rings on an ivory plate beside an aged card.
Dessert1h 13m10 servings

Grandma Loretta's Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

This is the card that started the second pass through Grandma Loretta's box. The front is freckled with old syrup, and someone wrote PERFECT in red hard enough to leave two shallow underline grooves. The back is stranger: a church-picnic date and one sentence about David, who became my grandfather. I kept Loretta's brown-sugar topping and soft butter cake, but measured the pineapple liquid and named the pan—two details her card assumes you already know. Turn it out while it is still warm. Waiting feels cautious, but the topping becomes considerably less cooperative.

Loretta's card

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN 1/2 c butter brown sugar — good layer pineapple rings + cherries 1 1/2 c flour 1 1/2 t baking powder pinch salt 1/2 c butter 3/4 c sugar 2 eggs vanilla juice + milk 1/2 c 350° till done turn out warm PERFECT

Front notes: PERFECT is in red fountain-pen ink and underlined twice. All other front text is in Loretta's blue ballpoint. Back notes: The back is in Loretta's blue ballpoint.

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, topping (57 g)
  • 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar (135 g)
  • 7 canned pineapple rings in juice, drained; reserve 1/2 cup juice
  • 7 maraschino cherries, optional
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (180 g)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (6 g)
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (113 g)
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar (150 g)
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5 ml)
  • 1/2 cup reserved pineapple juice plus whole milk (120 ml total)

Steps

  1. 1Heat oven to 350°F (175°C). Put a solid 9-inch round pan at least 2 inches deep on a rimmed sheet pan.
  2. 2Pour melted topping butter into the pan, add brown sugar evenly, and arrange pineapple and optional cherries.
  3. 3Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt.
  4. 4Beat softened butter and sugar 2–3 minutes; beat in eggs one at a time and vanilla.
  5. 5Alternate dry ingredients with the measured juice-milk mixture, mixing only until no flour remains.
  6. 6Spoon batter gently over fruit and smooth. Bake 40–48 minutes until the center springs back and a tester has moist crumbs.
  7. 7Cool exactly 10 minutes, loosen the edge, and invert with dry oven mitts onto a heat-safe plate.

There is something written on the back of this card.

Loretta wrote on the backs of about a third of her cards — a date, a name, who the dish was really for. I have been keeping those, and the rest of what I find, where I can write about them properly.

Read the rest of the box with meMore of Loretta's cards

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