Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes
Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes – a mini version of your favorite cake with butter, brown sugar, pineapple, and a cherry on top! These cupcakes are good warm or at room temperature so they’re great for parties or luaus.
Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes
In a perfect world, I would make these from scratch. And by all means if you want to, go right ahead.
But sometimes a doctored up cake mix does wonders. I mean adding brown sugar and butter to cake mix? Sounds like a sure win to me.
These Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes have been calling to me for years. Try not to burn the top of your mouth off eating them straight out of the oven. I did.
WHAT ARE PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CUPCAKES?
Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes are a mini version of your favorite cake with butter, brown sugar, pineapple, and a cherry on top!
- First, spoon some melted butter, crushed pineapple, brown sugar, and a cherry in the bottom of a muffin tin.
- Next, top with the cupcake batter and bake.
- Finally, invert the cupcakes for beautiful Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes.
I always have plenty of helpers in the kitchen. My son poured a teaspoon (or two) of butter in each cupcake tin. Then he put a tablespoon of brown sugar on top.
Then he put a cherry right in the center of the brown sugar.
I tried using crushed pineapple and pineapple tidbits to see which one worked better.The crushed pineapple won the experiment by a long shot.
It had way more flavor and looked prettier. The tidbits give a nice flower shape but most of them got stuck in the tin and the pineapple flavor wasn’t as strong.
The cupcake batter is just made according to the package directions but with replacing the water in the recipe with pineapple juice. Make sure you don’t over fill your tins.
Invert the cooked cupcakes onto waxed or parchment paper and you’re done!
OTHER CUPCAKE RECIPES:
- Rainbow Cupcakes
- Reese’s Peanut Butter Cupcakes
- Strawberry Puffcakes
- Strawberry Colada Cupcakes
- Strawberry Milkshake Cupcakes
- Funfetti Cupcakes
Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes
Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes - a mini version of your favorite cake with butter, brown sugar, pineapple, and a cherry on top!
Ingredients
- cooking spray
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 24 maraschino cherries
- 1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple (reserve juice)
- 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix (and oil and eggs called for on the package)
- 1 1/3 cups pineapple juice (you just need as much pineapple juice as water called for on the cake mix package - see note)
- confectioners' sugar for dusting
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray 24 muffin cups with cooking spray.
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Line a work surface with parchment or waxed paper.
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Spoon 1 teaspoon melted butter into the bottom of each sprayed muffin cup.
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Spoon 1 tablespoon brown sugar in each muffin cup.
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Press a maraschino cherry into the center of the brown sugar in each muffin cup.
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Spoon a heaping tablespoon of crushed pineapple over the cherry and compact it with the back of a spoon into an even layer.
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Mix cake mix according to the package directions, replacing the water with pineapple juice. This may vary according to which cake mix you use. In large bowl with electric mixer on low speed until moistened, about 30 seconds. Turn mixer speed to medium and mix for 2 minutes.
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Pour pineapple cake batter into the muffin cups, filling them almost to the top.
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Bake in the preheated oven on the middle rack until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
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Allow cupcakes to cool at least 5 minutes before inverting muffin cups onto the waxed paper to release. Serve with pineapple and cherry sides up. Sprinkle cupcakes lightly with confectioners' sugar if desired.
Recipe Notes
Just replace the water called for in your cake mix with pineapple juice. You should be able to reserve the juice from the crushed pineapple and have enough pineapple juice to use here. If you are a little shy on the amount of juice, just use water to fill the rest of the liquid called for in the recipe.
*Some people like the look of pineapple tidbits better for this recipe. I tried both and the crushed pineapple has a lot more flavor and looked prettier.
Source: Allrecipes - http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pineapple-upside-down-cupcakes/detail.aspx?mxt=t06dda
Nor sure what I did wrong, but on most of the cupcakes the brown sugar stayed in the bottom of the muffin cup after I inverted the pan. They still tasted pretty good, but didn’t come out looking nearly as pretty as yours.
My daughter made these for a family get together and I am hooked. They were outstanding and I hope I can make them as good as she did. THANK YOU FOR YOUR RECIPE.
You are welcome!
Does anyone know if these freeze well?
Has anyone tried this with mini muffin tins? I’d like a “one bite” pineapple upside down cake.
I made these for work yesterday and they were a monsterous hit.
I didn’t have yellow cake mix, but I did have spice cake mix. Instead of oil I used butter. Oh and I added an extra egg.
Oh and because I was taking them to work, I baked them in cupcake liners, but the aluminum ones. They looked really nice and smelled great. I couldn’t eat them but folks loved the.
So glad they liked then.
Hi, Can I make this ahead of time and freeze them?
I haven’t tried it but I don’t see why not.
Recipe is perfect! I have a bit of a sweet tooth but know that I need to cut back on sugar and added fats. I tweaked the recipe a little bit by replacing the regular butter with Earth Balance ( some brand of vegan butter ) and the brown sugar for Swerve. These are the perfect portion size, the crushed pineapple gave them a very strong ( in a GOOD way ) pineapple smell and taste. Didn’t use the liners but sprayed them with baking spray. I live at higher altitude so I had to bake them for about 8 more mins. Glad to say they came out perfectly and look forward to making this in the future as a way to satisfy my cravings without going overboard.
Before when I baked a pineapple upside down cake with the regular recipes I could eat the whole thing in a few days. With these I can keep myself at just 1 or 2 at most in a day. In order to make sure I don’t gorge myself ( they are delicious! ) I froze half of the batter to make the rest later on.
Glad your tweaks worked.
Delicious and easy
I used crushed pineapple a lot of the topping stayed in the mild. I scrapped it out and put it back
Worked out fine
Such a pretty desert
Glad it worked out okay!
The brown sugar stayed in the pan. I followed the recipe th the letter. Do you know what went wrong?
Hi Judy,
Hope you got it resolved by now but I was gonna ask if you greased the pan enough? I know many of us want to cut back on additional fat anywhere we can but greasing the pan is one place that is not worth it.
Also did you use enough butter when mixing the brown sugar as well? Hope I don’t come across as condescending, just thinking about the usual culprits.
After making these delicious cupcakes many times, I learned that leaving them in the pan for a little longer than 5 minutes prior to flipping them over helps save the topping. Hope that helps!
Thanks Nina.
These were.a HUGE hit and my dinner party. They have asked for them next time as well. They were so moist and absolutely delicious!
So glad you liked them!
Can i put the paper cupxakes cups into the muffin pan to prevent the cupcakes frm sticking to the pan?
No because the bottom of the cupcake becomes the top! That’s why it’s called Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes!
Yes, that would help.
I just took them out of the oven, haven’t tried them yet. I have a few notes though.
1.) One can of crushed pineapple divided by 24 “heaping” tablespoons = not enough. I had to open a second can, or you could cut back on each a little.
2.) 20 minutes is way too long of bake time, I did like 13-15 minutes and the edges are brown, hopefully they taste okay and aren’t too dry🤞
3.) I had about 2 full cupcakes worth of batter left, I just made a mini PUC with it 😊
If my bake time was too long, I’ll revisit this comment.
So every oven is different so I think it varies.
Delicious!
These cupcakes were gobbled up by everyone! I made 12cupcakes and then did the rest in a 9 inch round pan using pineapple rings instead of the crushed pineapple. I did find that i needed to leave them in the pan longer than 5 min before removing them. 10 minutes would be alot better. Put a large cutting board on them instead of parchment paper and they are a breeze to turn.. Will make these many more times! Great recipe.
Thank you!
This was so good!! Tried this recipe twice. First time went perfectly with rave reviews. Second time, I tried making it from memory and I messed it up. Your recipe with crushed pineapple is spot on perfect!! I’ll always follow it to the T! Thanks!
Thank you Jen!
I
For a small backyard picnic, I was looking for a dessert that included pineapple, and that could be made in individual servings. Since there were 6 of us, I made this using a large muffin tin, and increased the amount of butter, brown sugar, and pineapple in each serving. I used a white cake mix since that was what I had on hand, and ended up using about half of it for the 6 cupcakes. I increased the baking time by roughly 10 minutes. These came out of the tin beautifully, and were absolutely delicious! This is going into my “Definitely Make Again” recipe file. Thank you!
You are welcome! Happy to hear that!
These are such a great hit with my family! Perfect size portions too.
Hi! I’m interested in making this recipe to use leftover crushed pineapple. Do you think I could freeze the cupcakes once cooked?
These are deelish! For some reason my device won’t let me give 5 ⭐️ I’ve followed this recipe a few times and made for friends just because…Much easier than the cake. Handle with care when flipping though.
True story! Glad you liked them.