Growing up in the 1950′s and ’60′s we ate cake as if it was health food. And judging from the old cookbooks of the time, everyone was indulging. Sure there were pancakes, coffee cakes, muffins, and cupcakes to go around.
But we punctuated every occasion with a proper cake: devil’s food, angel food, carrot, oatmeal-cinnamon, caramel apple, German chocolate and pineapple upside-down cake.
As the third of eight girls, I did a ton of the baking and I loved making this cake. You melted brown sugar and butter in the bottom of a 9 x 13 cake pan and then placed rings of canned pineapple. The actual cake batter went on top. After it was baked, you tipped it over onto a large platter to show off the succulent pineapple all warm and gooey from the brown sugar.
moist
I recently decided to see if I could create a single serving of this nostalgic dessert. With one exception – I added coconut. My sister Cecelia (#4) didn’t like coconut, so I only added it to baked goods when I was mad at her. But since this is a single serving, I didn’t need to worry that she might drop in and complain about my choices.
coconut is a great addition
delicious
I made several versions of the cake and the one we liked best mimiced the old format of having the pineapple and coconut on the bottom. “Try it…you’ll like it!”
Ingredients for Pineapple Upside Down Cake-in-a-Cup – with coconut
1 tsp butter
3 TBS brown sugar – total
1 TBS coconut
3 TBS canned pineapple tidbits
1 egg
2 TBS yogurt
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 TBS flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
dash salt
Directions
Use a large glass mug that holds 12 – 16 ounces
Put the butter, 1 TBS brown sugar, pineapple and coconut in the bottom of the cup.
In a separate bowl, whisk the rest of the ingredients together with a fork until blended.
Pour the batter into the cup.
Microwave 2 minutes or until done.
Invert onto a plate and admire your work.
Note: If you want to skip a few ingredients, use 3 TBS of your Muggin Mix instead of the flour, salt and baking powder. Using the mix will add more fiber and may put this into the “health food” category.
Also note, this is part of the Single Servings Collection. Here are a few more recipes to try:
Chocolate cake in a cup
