Merry Christmas Cakes to My Friends (with Recipe)

My husband often brings home recipes for me to test-prep.

The other day he brought a can of pineapple slices to work to snack on and came home with this mini-recipe which sounded so easy and sweet I decided to give it a try this Christmas Eve morning.

Really glad I did...especially after the avalanche of chocolate from yesterday's baking.

It has a nice Christmas-y touch and the mini-size gives each person his/her own Christmas cake.

I call them Petite Jeweled Cakes but they are basically Mini Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes.

The two cautions I pass on are to make sure the pineapple slices are drained thoroughly (but save the juice) and that if you fill muffin tins with too much cake batter they won't look as nice but creates enough rejects for the family to sample while the best ones go on a nice serving tray for guests. Better to go less on the cake batter than overfill.

Recipe

2 (20 oz.) cans pineapple slices

1/3 cup magarine, melted

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

9 marashino cherries

1 package (18.25 oz) yellow cake mix

• Drain pineapple juice into bowl to use later.
•  Melt butter in saucepan and stir in brown sugar until dissolved.
• Spray muffin pan extremely well with cooking spray.
• Divide melted butter/brown sugar evenly into sprayed muffin cups.
•  Lightly press well-drained pineapple slices into melted sugar mixture at bottom of muffin tins.
• Place a cherry in center of each pineapple slice.
• Prepare cake mix according the package directions, replacing amount of water with 1 cup of reserved juice.
• Pour 1/3 (about 2-3 tablespoons full) of cake batter into each cup.
• Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until tops are browned and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
• Cool 5-10 minutes.
• Use knife to loosen and file around edges.
• Invert onto cookie sheet.

* I did not have a muffin pan so I used my cupcake pan with bottoms smaller than pineapple slices but it sloped them downwards giving them a volcano image which I think is a nice touch. So either pan works.