In June, we will have been married 30 years, and we dated for 5 years before that, so it was a real surprise when my husband announced that he never had pineapple upside down cake. How is that even possible? Apparently he saw a picture of one that his cousin posted online and he thought it looked good. I think of the pineapple upside down cake as a homey, old-fashioned, working class dessert, one that doesn’t take a lot of expensive ingredients, and that looks and tastes fancy enough for company. But I guess it’s the old-fashioned part that has stuck in my head.

Anyway, I just got that new Nordic Ware 9″ square pan, so I looked for a recipe for that size pan. The recipe in my old faithful Betty Crocker cookbook called for a 10″ skillet or a 9″ square pan. Online, there’s a Betty Crocker recipe specifically for the 9″ square and the ingredients are slightly different than in my cookbook. I followed that one, substituting pineapple juice for half of the milk, and placing pecans between the pineapple slices. It turned out incredibly moist and flavorful. One important thing I would change is letting the cake cool a bit before flipping over. Some recipes suggest cooling completely, but I wouldn’t wait that long. Fifteen-twenty minutes is enough. You want the cake to hold together, but you also want the fruit to come out with the cake and not stick in the pan.

He loved it!

Find the recipe here: