Pineapple Upside Down Carrot Cake
Caramelized, deep brown, buttery pineapple crowns perfect, sweet carrot cake. Top warm pieces with vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of creme fraiche for an over-the-top indulgent treat.
Adapted from Ultimate Carrot Cake by Zoe François of Zoe Bakes. I omitted the dried fruit, walnuts, frosting, and coconuts, changed up the grind on the carrots, and then performed a little upside-downing with pineapple operation.
Ingredients
Ingredients for cake batter:
- 1 pound finely grated then chopped carrots see notes
- 4 extra large eggs at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 cups canola oil
- 2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
- finely grated zest of one orange
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- a pinch of ground cloves
Ingredients for pineapple caramel layer:
- 4 tablespoons of butter softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup raw sugar turbinado, preferably Bourbon Vanilla Raw Sugar. Instructions on how to prepare this are available here on Foodie With Family.,
- 1 cup crushed pineapple drained of juice and squeezed lightly to remove more juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
To prepare the Pineapple Caramel Layer:
- Spray a bundt pan (or six individual sized bundt pans) with non-stick cooking spray.
- Break off pieces of the softened butter and dot the bottom of the pan evenly. (If using mini bundt pans, divide the butter evenly between them.)
- Sprinkle the turbinado sugar over the butter. (Again, if using the individual bundt pans, divide the sugar evenly between the pans.)
- Evenly distribute the pineapple over the sugar.
To prepare the Carrot Cake batter:
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, granulated and brown sugar, oil, vanilla extract and orange zest.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all the spices in a large mixing bowl.
- Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and stir together with a wooden spoon until there are no more pockets of dry ingredients.
- Add the carrots all at once and fold into the batter.
- Scrape the batter evenly into the prepared pan(s). The batter should rise no higher than 2/3 of the way up the pan.
- Bake 25-30 minutes for mini-bundt pans or 60-70 minutes for a regular bundt pan, or until a straw inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. (If using mini pans, test each cake.)
- Let the cake rest in the pan(s) for five minutes before turning onto a serving platter.
- For best flavour, serve while still warm.
Notes
Zoe Francois suggested coarsely grating the carrots in the food processor then chopping them with the blade a bit. I opted to grate my carrots on the fine-grating disc in my food processor followed by pulsing them with the blade for a finer texture to the carrots in my cake. This accomplished two things. It made it a far easier sell for the anti-vegetable gruesome twosome in my house in addition to creating a lighter textured end product. I liked the fine texture so much that I'll carry on doing it this way long after the gruesome twosome comes out of this veg phobic phase.
Nutrition
Calories: 575kcalCarbohydrates: 112gProtein: 7gFat: 11gSaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 96mgSodium: 410mgPotassium: 437mgFiber: 3gSugar: 80gVitamin A: 9800IUVitamin C: 10mgCalcium: 101mgIron: 2.6mg
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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