What's Cookin' - Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

It's strange, I know, but I've been thinking about pineapple upside down cake. (Does something ever pop into your head and then you can't stop thinking about it until you have it? Or is that just me???) And I have a cupcake pan from Pampered Chef that I've never used so I put it all together yesterday and made Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes in my Silicone Floral Cupcake Pan.

Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

1 Duncan Hines Pineapple Supreme Cake Mix (or you can use yellow cake mix)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

24 maraschino cherries

1/3 cup butter, melted

2/3 cup brown sugar, packed

1 20-oz can crushed pineapple

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain crushed pineapple into a measuring cup, reserving juice for later. Grease cupcake pan (I use baking spray with flour already in it). Place a cherry in each cup.

Mix melted butter and brown sugar together and place a heaping 1/2 teaspoon in each cup. Then put about 1 tablespoon of the drained crushed pineapple in each cup. (I used my Pampered Chef Small Scoop).

Now prepare your cake batter just like it says on the box with 3 eggs and 1/3 cup oil. Add water to the measuring cup of pineapple juice to bring it to 1-1/3 cups. Mix according to cake box directions. Fill each cup with batter. (I used my Pampered Chef Large Scoop.) These floral cupcake cups are on the small side and I filled them to the top, making 24 cupcakes and still having enough batter left over to make a small cake in a 4" springform pan. Larger cupcake cups would probably use all the batter.

I baked these for 17 to 18 minutes but, again, these cupcake cups are small. Standard sized cupcakes would probably take a few more minutes. I let them cool for about 15 minutes in the pan, then placed a cookie sheet over the top and flipped it over to pop them out. They're very gooey with the butter, brown sugar and pineapple on top, but they taste delicious and look so pretty. They'd be great for a dinner party or bridal or baby shower!

I know it must seem like I'm a shill for Pampered Chef, but I've just been to a bunch of their home parties and love and actually use their products. :-D