Pineapple Upside Down Cake Showdown

Recently at work we’ve been brainstorming new cake ideas.  One dessert that has come up as a possible contender is pineapple upside down cake.  Everyone liked the look of the cake, but no one had really tasted it before.  While common in the U.S., pineapple upside down cake is not that well-known in Korea.  In fact, I’ve only encountered it one time over here.  It was at a trendy restaurant and their take on it was awful to say the least.  The R&D pâtissier was also whipping up his own bizarre version of it, so I decided to take the matter into my own hands and give everyone an authentic, or at least a tasty rendition of this classic.  The only problem was that although I had eaten a good amount of pineapple upside down cakes, I had never made one before!  Uh oh…I immediately got busy and started searching for recipes.

Most of the recipes I came across were butter-based, made by creaming the butter and sugar together, but there was one recipe I found that called for a sponge cake batter. I couldn’t decide which version I wanted to make; the dense butter-based cake would probably result in a more classic, tradition rendition, however I knew the lighter interpretation would better suit a Korean audience. There was only one way to end this dilemma…a showdown.

I let my family be the judges: a good mix between those with refined palates and those who insist on eating filet mignon with ketchup (naming no names, Dad).  The voting pool was diverse and big enough (nine people) to give a fair assessment on which recipe appealed more to the masses.

To make things as equal as possible, I kept the ingredient list almost exactly the same and baking time/temperature exactly the same.  I treated each recipe with care and precision, wishing each one good luck as they took the tasting stage!  Here are the details:

Above we have the sponge based recipe. The cake rose quite a bit while baking and turned a very lovely deep caramel color.  Inside the crumb was spaced out with evenly sized air pockets throughout.  The cake was soft with a bit of a bounce.  I thought the airiness of the batter would be too light juxtaposed to the caramelized top, but to the welded together quite nicely.  Although the dessert is usually very humble, often times baked in a cast iron skillet, this version definitely makes it more elegant.

Here we have the butter based version.  It’s slightly shorter than it’s sponge counterpart, and slightly lighter in color too. The crumb is more tightly knit resulting in a denser but more crumbly cake. The texture reminded me almost of a rustic cornmeal cake.  The heaviness of the cake is balanced out by the juices of the caramelized top.  This one is more homey and welcoming, made me feel like I could eat it at any time of day.  Overall, it felt more American, and as I predicted, true to the original version.

It was such tough call, especially because my preference was overruled by majority vote.  Any guesses on which cake won??

For the results and corresponding recipe stay tuned for the next post!