Vegan Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes

 These mini pineapple upside down cakes taste amazing - they happen to be vegan but I think they are the best I've had of any kind! I made these to take when I went to see a friend who had moved into a new flat; she is vegan so I've been trying out recipes from Ms Cupcake's book. You are supposed to use a glace cherry on top but at the time I didn't have any, though after taking part in this demonstration for French glace cherries I now have plenty! Here's what I did:

You need:

60g vegan margarine e.g. Vitalite

60g brown sugar

12 tinned pineapple rings

12 glace cherries (if using)

300g self raising flour

180g caster sugar

1.5 tsp baking powder

80ml pineapple juice (from the tin)

220ml soya milk

120ml vegetable oil

1 tbsp vanilla flavouring

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/gas 4.

Cream the margarine and brown sugar in a bowl.

Using your finger (or a spoon, but I found fingers a lot easier) spread this mixture over the bottom and around the sides of all the indentations in a muffin baking tin.

 Place a pineapple ring in the bottom of each muffin hole. The rings were a little large for mine so I experimented by either pushing them in at an angle (eg bottom left) or cutting a strip off around the edge of the pineapple ring to make them narrower (eg bottom middle).  I think the latter worked better but it's up to you. If you are using glace cherries, place one in the hole in the middle of each pineapple ring.

In another bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and baking powder. Gradually mix in the pineapple juice, milk, oil and vanilla.

Spoon the cake mixture into the tin, being careful not to overfill.

These only need about 15 mins in the oven, then are nicely risen.

Leave to cool in the pan then turn out onto a wire rack. Serve upside down, of course! The sugar mixture that you rub around the side of the pan caramelizes and gives a lovely crunchy texture, while the pineapple on top is also slightly caramelized but still soft. The cakes are light and fluffy and in my opinion up there with some of the best I've made.

I packaged these up into a pretty box and took to my friend's new flat as a housewarming gift.

I have friends who insist vegan cakes must taste dreadful - and I'm planning an experiment with one soon, to see if he can taste the difference! But as soon as I started baking vegan cakes, after one of my best friends became vegan, I realised that they taste just as good, and in some cases better, than non-vegan bakes!

I'm sending these to Love Cake, hosted by Jibber Jabber, as the theme this month is 'giving up' - baking cakes without at least one of the following traditional ingredients: eggs, butter, sugar, or wheat flour. These are dairy-free and use vegan margarine instead of butter, and no eggs.

 

I'm also sending these to Alphabakes, the blog challenge that I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker. The letter she has chosen this month is U; I think we are going to get a lot of upside down cakes! I do have something else quite original up my sleeve though :-)