Betsy’s Pineapple Upside-Down Cake (gluten free)
Mind you, when I’m in Steamboat and my neighbor Betsy brings me one of her amazing baked goodies, I AM ECSTATIC! She is an amazing gluten free baker, and like us, loves to find a great recipe to adapt and make gluten free! Betsy adapted this recipe from Epicurious to make it gluten free and alcohol free. Please let us know what you think in the comment section below.
Ingredients:
Cake batter:
1 ½ C gluten free flour blend (recipe blend follows)
2-3 tsp. ground cardamom
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. sea salt
½ C-3/4 C raw cane sugar
2 large eggs (if small use 3 eggs)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbl maple syrup, or coconut syrup
Optional 1 tsp. rum extract or rum
½ C pineapple coconut juice
2 Tbl. maple syrup or dark rum to top cake
Four Blend to make 1 ½ C flour
¾ C Pamela’s Baking and Pancake Mix
¼ C Millet (we used whole millet and fresh ground using a seed grinder)
¼ C ground pecans
¼ C coconut flour
Topping
Fresh Pineapple or canned rings of pineapple ( we used fresh)
¾ of a stick of unsalted butter
¾C packed brown sugar
Best to use a well-seasoned 10” cast iron pan for baking or a quiche or pie plate
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
To make topping
Cut pineapple crosswise into 3/8-inch-thick pieces.
Melt butter in cast iron skillet.
Add brown sugar and simmer over moderate heat, stirring, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Arrange pineapple on top of sugar mixture in concentric circles, overlapping pieces slightly.
To make batter
Mix flour, cardamom, baking powder, and salt.
Beat butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Next gradually beat in granulated sugar. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and rum or if using maple syrup.
Add half of flour mixture and beat on low speed just until blended. Beat in pineapple juice. Next add remaining flour mixture, beating just until blended.
Spoon batter over pineapple topping and spread evenly.
Bake cake in middle of oven until golden and a tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cake stand in skillet 5 minutes before turning it out from the skillet. Invert a plate over skillet and turn cake out onto plate (keeping plate and skillet firmly pressed together). Use hot pads as the skillet will be hot.
Replace any pineapple stuck to bottom of skillet. Sprinkle rum or maple syrup over cake and cool on plate.
Serve cake warm fresh out from the oven with some fresh whipped cream or ice cream.