Pineapple Upside Down Minis

 My sister Jennifer celebrated her 40th birthday this year.
She wanted a dessert table. da da daaaa!  Call sissy!
Tropical theme and she decides that a Pineapple Upside Down cake for each guest would be great.  Oh and a few other things too.  Minis, we made minis.


Makes 24+ cupcake sized minis*

Topping:
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 (20 oz) can pineapple slices**
Maraschino cherries, halved

Cake:
1 pkg Duncan Hines Yellow Cake Mix***
1 (3.4 oz) pkg vanilla instant pudding
4 large eggs
1 cup pineapple juice (from the canned pineapple)
1/2 cup oil

Preheat oven to 350°F.

For topping, mix melted butter and brown sugar. Generously grease your cupcake pan.  Spoon the brown sugar mixture into the pans.  Now lay in the slices of pineapple.  I found in the regular size cupcake pan 3/4 of a slice fit perfectly.  Add your half of maraschino cherry.  Set aside.

For cake, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, juice and oil in large mixing bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes. Spoon batter over fruit in the pans so that it is about 2/3 full.

Good idea to set the pans onto a cookie sheet for baking - the topping may bubble up and drip a little bit.  Bake at 350 ºF for 15-20 minutes hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Once done wait 3 minutes then run a knife around the edges to loosen the minis. Invert onto a wire rack with a tray under it or a serving plate.  Wait for just a moment then lift the pan straight up with a little wiggle.  If some of the pineapple stays in the pan quickly - be careful extremely hot! - place onto the mini that is missing its piece.

You can serve hot or let cool.

*With this recipe I made 24 cupcakes.  I had left over batter that I cooked without the "topping" in a 8" round. You could increase the butter to 1 cup and the brown sugar to 2 cups to make about 36 cupcake sized minis.

**Check how many slices are in the can you purchase to go with how many minis you will be making.  Also chucks work but are much thicker.  I found that three chunks sliced in half (six pieces) fit well.

*** You can also use a pineapple flavored cake mix.

Printer friendly recipe here.

We also made mini Lemon Berry Trifles, Pistacio cake, and mini Coconut Cream pies.

It was a great party!  Happy BDay Sis!

:)