Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Hmm. I baked this cake on Saturday and took it to a picnic on Sunday. It was very delicious, but not quite what I had hoped; I had already tasted some of the cake on Saturday, scratching off a bit that had stuck to the baking pan, and that stuff was really delicious, crunchy on the top and juicy on the bottom (before turning). In contrast, the cake as I served it on Sunday was nice in taste, but didn't have a very strong pineapple flavour. The cake was nicely textured, but for my personal liking it could have had more pineapple in relation to cake.

On the other hand, DH was really happy with the cake. He thought it was really nice, the flavours were nicely balanced, it was very juicy and it looked great (which it really did). He lobbied for a 5 star rating, I had a 4 star rating in mind. I asked him how this cake compared to the Walnut Cake with Coffee Syrup I had baked recently. I thought that both cakes were nice, but the coffee cake had the more intriguing texture; DH actually preferred the pineapple cake. I decided to pass a Solomonic judgment and give both cakes a 5 star rating; they do have their fans.

Modifications: I thought granulated was coarser than normal sugar, so I used only a 3/4 cup instead of a whole one. I had mulled over in which container I should bake the cake. In the end, my best spring form baking tin seemed to be the best option, also because of how easy it would be to retrieve the cake from the baking tin and take it to the picnic in one not-too-squashed piece. Yes, I can hear you think "ouch". Apparently even my best spring form baking tin isn't able to withhold the caramel from leaking out of the pan. On the plus side, if the caramel hadn't leaked, the cake might have turned out way too sweet.

I wonder how the cake would have turned out if I had left it upside-down until just before serving. That would effectively have prevented me from sprinkling over the rum, but it might have kept the upper part crisp. This seems like enough reason for further investigation (hurrah, more cake!).

Edited 1 April 2014: I made this cake again, this time using canned pineapple as the one I wanted to use had gone bad. I hardly noticed a difference! I still thought that the pineapple flavour could be stronger, though, but I realised too late that perhaps it would be a good idea to reduce the pineapple juice to syrup and add that? Not sure if it would work, but it just might.

This time I used a very wide pan I also often use for tarte tatins lately. It's 11 inch wide, which seems really wide for a cake; on the other hand, that means that you'll end up with a high fruit to cake ratio, which is great. This time we had a slice right away (when it had cooled), and it was great, juicy and sweet around the pineapple, crisp on top. I'm storing it unturned this time.

Not sure if you can see, but I made a different pattern this time - you could interpret it as clover with three leaves. Maybe I need to dip a few of the pineapple pieces in food colouring before I put them in the pan?

Deb ends the recipe with the remark 'Cake may be made one day ahead'. What she actually means is: Cake should be eaten by the end of the second day, as it doesn't hold well and will be way less delicious after the second day.

Edited 22 September 2014: Hmm, not quite sure what went wrong. The cake was a catastrophe! It was mushy and soggy, in some place it even seemed to be totally underbaked (even though I had tested if it was baked in several places), it wasn't sweet, and some bites even tasted slightly salty, like a mineral water that's a little heavy on the minerals. It might be that the last few I used only half the amount of salt, while I know I used the full amount this time. But what with all the other stuff going wrong in this cake?

Downgraded from 5 to 3.