National Pineapple Upside-down Cake Day

The pineapple upside-down cake is celebrated and eaten today. A yellow sponge cake topped with pineapple rings and caramelized brown sugar is made by putting the toppings on the bottom of a pan and covering them with batter. After baking, the cake is turned over, topped with maraschino cherries, and served.

The first upside-down cakes were made in the mid-nineteenth century with fruit like cherries and apples, and were cooked in cast iron skillets over fires and on stoves. Similar cakes had been made in skillets over fires since the Middle Ages. James Dole's Hawaiian Pineapple Company debuted canned pineapple in 1903 and a machine to peel, core, and make pineapple into rings in 1911. Pineapple-upside down cakes came soon afterward.

In 1925, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company organized a pineapple recipe contest. According to one account, 2,500 of the 60,000 submissions were for pineapple upside-down cakes. The top 100 recipes, which included one for upside-down cake, were published in a cookbook shortly after. Since so many recipes for pineapple upside-down cake had been submitted, the company then spearheaded an ad campaign for the cake, which increased its popularity. The cakes were particularly popular in the 1950s and '60s and have once again been gaining admirers. We celebrate them today with National Pineapple Upside-down Cake Day!

How to Observe National Pineapple Upside-down Cake Day

Celebrate by having some pineapple upside-down cake! Making your own could be quite rewarding, and you could even make the recipe that was selected from the Hawaiian Pineapple Company recipe contest in 1925.

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