Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes

A week ago my dad invited us to a trivia night that supported the YMCA by his place.  The 'theme' of the night was luau... there was suppose to be a table decorating contest, although none of us really stepped up to do that one!

Either way, I thought it would be fun to make a luau themed dish.  I decided to make pineapple upside-down cupcakes.  I found the recipe on Pinterest - but you can find the original here.  As it says in this recipe - "...these cupcakes offer a delicious introduction to baking. Whether they're cutting up ingredients with a plastic knife, arranging the fruit in the bottom of each cup, or mixing the batter, beginning bakers get plenty of chances to pitch in."  Now, I know they are probably referring to children by saying an introduction to baking, it's an easy way to know that this recipe isn't going to be waaay difficult.  And it really really wasn't.

At first, I thought it was really weird... I had to get a cupcake pan out and put a pad of butter (not melted) and a half a tablespoon of brown sugar in each spot.  This seemed really strange, but I did it anyway and placed it in the oven and viola - the topping was made. 

Then you place in the fruit.  One thing I would do differently next time is really push the fruit into the sugar topping more.  Some of my cupcakes you couldn't see the pineapple.  Then you make the batter, place it on top and bake away.

Then you take them out.  The recipe says to let the pan cool for 5 minutes before flipping, although my mom said that she would flip way sooner.  I ended up waiting between 3-4 minutes.  Most all of the topping stayed on the cupcakes, however some of it stuck in the pan.  So flipping sooner may be a good idea.

Here's a look at the final product.

There were quite the hit!  I really like pineapple upside-down cake, and what's nice about these cupcakes is they are already individualized.  Which means you get that bit of crust around the edges that makes it that much more delicious!

How did we do at trivia?  Well... we got 5th out of 22 teams.  It was a lot of fun!  I always enjoy trivia nights, especially with this group of people.  There were a couple of categories that were pretty difficult, including a sports one (Who know some many MLS soccer teams thee are??)

So overall - this recipe is a complete success - I would totally recommend it and will hopefully make it again!