Baking My Own Chimera: Pineapple-Pecan Brown-Butter Upside-Down Cake

I'm not sure if it's best called a hybrid, a chimera, or simply another fiendish experiment from the AFIEP test-kitchen -- but I do know that it was a success. 

These days I seem to need an excuse to bake, since time is of the essence what with work, more work, courses taken and courses taught.  Recently, a family brunch for out-of-town cousins at dear old dad's fit the bill quite nicely. 

I started with thoughts of  pineapple-upside-down cake.  A plethora of pecans brought pecan pie to mind. Then there was the memory of last summer's brown-butter nectarine cake, with its rich nut-brown scent and caramel-colored crumb.  These all united in my mind to form the vision of a deeply caramelized cake, crunchy with pecans and sticky with glazed pineapple.  I remembered that my mother had always put a few pecans in the topping for pineapple upside-down cake (instead of those scarily fluorescent maraschino cherries).  She liked a grating of  nutmeg in the batter, too.  Browning the butter and using a fresh pineapple would take it a step or so out of her realm, but with a kiss blown heavenward, I approached my laboratory.  Thus a new cake, a sunny confection to tide us from the last of winter's tired fruits to the hope of spring's fresh produce,  is born. 

Pineapple-Pecan Browned-Butter Upside-Down Cake
This makes two cakes.  Perhaps I'm just greedy (let's face it, there's no perhaps about it), but I think, especially in these harried times, that if you're going to bake, you might as well make two cakes.  One goes to brunch, the other stays home and gets shared piece by piece with neighbors, workmates, and best-beloveds during late-night dessert time. 

Topping
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, plus more for cake pan
3/4 cup light muscovado or light brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 fresh pineapple, quartered, cored, and cut into 3/8 inch thick slices
1 cup toasted chopped pecans

Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
2 1/2 sticks (10 oz.) unsalted butter
3/4 cup light muscovado or light brown sugar
3/4 granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. best-quality vanilla paste or extract

Preheat oven to 325 F.  Butter two 9-inch round layer pans well.

Melt the 4 tbsp. of butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat; add brown sugar and salt.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is foamy and pale, 3 to 4 minutes. Pour the topping into the prepared cake tins; swirl them to distribute it evenly. Arrange fruit slices in concentric circles over topping; fill in all the gaps between pineapple pieces with plenty of chopped toasted pecans, pushing them down well into the brown sugar topping.

Whisk together  flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt in a small bowl. Melt the 2 1/2 sticks of butter over medium heat.  Cook slowly until brown, stirring all the while.  If the butter burns a little, strain it to get rid of the dark sediment -- the butter will still taste good. If it burns a lot, toss it out and begin again.  Let the butter cool to room temperature -- it should begin to solidify.  Beat it in a large bowl with both sugars until creamy.  Add eggs, beating them in one at a time.  Beat in the vanilla.  Lightly stir in the  flour mixture until just blended.  Divide the mixture between the two pans, spreading it lightly and evenly over the pineapple-pecan-caramel topping. Bake for  30 - 35 minutes; start testing the cakes at 20 minutes to make sure they're not browning too quickly.  Remove when a toothpick or cake tester comes out more or less clean; cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out carefully from the pan, replacing on the top of the cake any pineapple, nuts or caramel that stick to the pan. 

I'm sure I don't have to tell you how good I think this would be with some excellent vanilla ice-cream.  At brunch, however, we ate it as part of a somewhat comprehensive dessert course, alongside fruit salad with Greek yogurt and wildflower honey, and slices of Pierre Herme's Chocolate Ginger Apricot Loaf (to which my only fiendish additions were extra chocolate chunks and an impulsive handful of bright green pistachios). 

Comments

[Ivonne]

I have never tried an updside down cake. But you have given me the inspiration! It looks wonderful ... thanks for the recipe!

[Tania]

O, so many things to love about this recipe! The pineapple, the pecans, the brown butter, the sticky upsidedownedness, not to mention the fact that you get TWO cakes ... Brilliant!

[Joe C]

Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm...That was one delicious cake. The Hermes loaf was also marvelous. To be honest, your version improves on the pineapple upside-down that was such a treat when made by sainted maman. But what about the rest of that lunch? It wasn't chopped liver.
We were wondering what happened to the other cake.

[shuna fish lydon]

Pineapple upside down cake is something that I love although few people believe me when I say so.

Part of it is the Amelia Bedilia referance.

[Julie]

Ivonne, let me know if you try this...I sort of enjoy the suspense factor of upside-down cake!

Tania, thanks so much for the kudos. As you can see from my brother (Joe C's) comment, it does turn out to be all that it promises...

Awww, bro -- the rest of the lunch/brunch was swell, thanks to you and SIL. All that gorgeous smoked fish and bagels, beautiful quiches, fantastic salad...I wish I could have that brunch every weekend!

Shuna, thanks so much for stopping by! I'm not surprised at all that you like upside down cake. I'm a great believer in marvelous pastry chefs like yourself who have a true range; those whose brownies and gingerbread are as tempting as their elaborate classical patisserie...

[genevieve]

for some reason, i always feel that there is a much greater chance that a cake will come out delicious when it is baked upside down. and also if there are pecans involved! :)