Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

Yummitty yummy yummy yum.

I think those were the exact words used to describe these cupcakes when we took them to a friend's house for Easter.  Although I may have been the one to say it.  And it might have just been in my head.  And it might have been my fifth cupcake of the day.  But I did receive an "Oh these are delicious little treats" from everyone else at the party.

Our friends are a lot more eloquent than I am apparently.

Either way these make a delicious spring and summer treat and are surprisingly easy to make.  I like that in a recipe.

The ingredients:

Can of crushed pineapple (I ended up using two of the mid size cans), 1/2 cup of butter, 1 cup brown sugar, and a box of cake mix (plus whatever you need for the cake mix, usually some water, oil, and eggs.

Preheat the oven and mix together the cake mix according to the package directions.  Here's a little tip: drain some of the juice from the pineapple can and use it as half of the water needed for the cake mix.  It adds some additional pineapple goodness.
In a bowl melt the butter and brown sugar, stirring well to combine.

Spray a cupcake pan with some cooking spray.  When I was making these I decided to make half of them with cupcake liners and the other half just in the pan with some cooking spray to see which ones would work the best.  While they both came out of the pan just fine the shape of the cupcakes baked without the liners was much better.   I recommend skipping the liners all together and just using cooking spray.

Pour a spoonful of the butter/brown sugar mixture into the bottom of each cupcake tin and then add a spoonful of the crushed pineapple, pressing it down into the butter/sugar mixture.

Pour the cake batter on top until the cupcake tins are 2/3 full.  Put in the oven and bake according to the cake mix directions.  After baking remove from oven and run a butter knife around the edges of each tin.   Use the same knife to level the tops (which will become the bottoms in a second) to make them flat.  Turn the pan upside down on a cooling rack, each cupcake should slide right out with the pineapple mixture now on top.

See the difference?

They taste delicious just like this or with a little bit of cream cheese frosting drizzled on top.  And you can always add a cherry on top for a more traditional pineapple-upside- down-cake-look.

This recipe makes 24 cupcakes and from start to finish took about 30 minutes to make.  No one will guess how easy they were!

Yummitty yummy yummy yum.