Pineapple Upside Down Cake that I made for my Grammar 4 Class

I teach ESL. Last week, I made a pineapple upside-down-cake for a couple of student birthdays, and they asked me for the recipe.

To Buy:
1 plain (I used Western Family) cake mix
1 16-oz. can of sliced pineapple (in rings)
1 small container of Wallaby Organic Vanilla Yogurt (picture is on the left)

Also, if you don't have them, buy brown sugar and butter and eggs.

Note: I bought the Wallaby Yogurt at a store called The Good Earth; the one I went to is on State Street in Orem. The last time I bought the small size, it was $1.05, which is kind of expensive for yogurt, but on the other hand, it really does taste very good. If you don't want to go to Orem or spend that much money on yogurt, you will be happy to know that I tried this recipe with the much cheaper and more easily available Western Family brand, and everyone seemed to like that, too.

First, melt 2 T of the butter and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar together in a pan. Mix them while they cook. When this boils, pour it in to one small cake pan. Spread the mixture around a little, until it is kind of evenly spread over the bottom of the pan. I always end up with little parts that aren't covered, and it always works out fine.

Next, melt two more tablespoons of butter and another 1/2 cup of brown sugar, and then pour that in to another small cake pan, and spread it out.

Next, open the pineapple. Pour as much of the juice as possible in to a measuring cup (and don't drink it). Put half of the pineapple slices in the bottom of one pan, and half of them in the other pan. Arrange them so that they are not on top of one another.

Now you make the cake mix. Follow directions on the back of the box, but instead of water, use the pineapple juice, and instead of oil, use the vanilla yogurt. If you don't have quite enough pineapple juice, then just fill in the rest of the cup with water.

Because in Provo, we are at "high altitude," (I believe that the city is about 5,000 feet up-- no, I just looked, it's 4,500), cakes rise faster here than they do elsewhere. This means that you may want to make a "high altitude adjustment" to the recipe. You do this by adding a little bit of extra flour and/or liquid to the batter. This dilutes the leavening (the stuff that makes the cake rise) a little bit, so that the cake is in less danger of over-rising and then falling.

Pour the cake batter in to the pans. You can divide it evenly by using a measuring cup. First pour one cup of batter in to one pan, and then another cup in to the other pan, and then one in the first pan, and then in the other pan.

Bake the cake according to the directions on the box. (The box I got said to bake it at 325 degrees centigrade, for 35 minutes, for the size of pan I was using.)

Once it is done baking, you are supposed to turn it out, upside-down, on to another surface (like a plate), which is why it is called "upside-down cake." I sometimes skip this part, because I am lazy, and because it tastes just as good that way.

Good luck! If you have any trouble with these instructions, please make a comment so that I can make the recipe better.