Cake of childhood, Pineapple Upside Down Cake (or cupcakes)

My friend CC and I are hosting a Mad Men themed Christmas party this year.  So we research and thought one of the desserts needs to be somewhat TV inspired.  PUDS(Pineapple Upside Down Cake) starting making an appearance after Dole started canning its pineapple and recipes flooded in after that.
I thought PUDS would be a simple, easy, tasty dessert.  We did a test dinner last night and yesterday morning I remembered, I don't have a cast iron skillet.  So I did the next best thing.  I made cupcakes.  You can't use pineapple rings obviously because muffin pans are smaller so you have to modify the recipe.  The one I found says you can break up the fruit into pieces and halve the cherries.  It turned out delicious and only took about 30 minutes to make.  Still kicking myself  that I didn't take a picture.  I'll have to remember to do so when we have the party.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake cupcakes recipe:

for the cake:

2 eggs

2/3 cup white sugar

4 TBSP pineapple juice 

2/3 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

for the brown sugar topping:

2 tablespoons of butter/margarine

1/3 cup brown sugar (packed)

can pineapple rings 

maraschino cherries

Instructions

1.Melt the butter and brown sugar in the microwave – 30 seconds should do it. Once melted, mix it well!

2.Sift the dry ingredients.

3.Mix the wet ingredients thoroughly!

4.And preheat the oven to 350 F.

5.Once the wet ingredients are mixed well and the dry ingredients are sifted, you can mix them together.

6.Pour the dry into the wet, and mix until everything is combined and you can’t see any clumps of dry ingredients.

7.Spray your muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

8.Spoon in a little bit of the butter/brown sugar mixture into the bottom of each cup – it ends up being a little less than a tablespoon each. Then place a maraschino cherry in the middle and surround it with bit of pineapple.

9.Now you’ll spoon the batter onto the toppings.

10.Bake in a preheated 350 F oven for 20 minutes. Test their doneness with a toothpick – it should come out of the middle of a cupcake nice and clean!

11.Once they’re done, you need to let them cool for at least 15-20 minutes, preferably on a wire rack.  If you try to take them out of the pan right away, you’ll probably lose your toppings because they’ll be too hot.

12Go around the edge of each cupcake with a butter knife to help loosen them. Then cover the muffin pan with a large plate or a cutting board and flip it over! This should let them come out nice and easy, and in one piece!

Try it!! So good!!