The depths of my childhood deprivation have only recently become apparent. Unlike the majority of happy baby boomer children who enjoyed Pineapple Upside Down (PUD…perfect acronym) Cake at the end of every joyous Sunday lunch of their idyllic childhoods I have had to wait a full 73 years for my first taste. It would be true to say that my consensus of “happy baby boomer children” has been collated from comments on my Instagram post of such a cake so we can probably reduce “majority of happy baby boomers” to four or five people who mentioned that they had happy memories of PUD. Nevertheless, this not being a time in history when facts have any bearing on the matter in hand, I shall continue to declare that I have been hard done by and shall scream from the virtual nursery door…..”this is so-ooo-ooooo unfair-r-r-r”……the sole problem being that fairness is treated in the same cavalier fashion as facts so together I shall pull myself and get on with extolling the virtues of this FACT….( Fucking Amazing Cakey Treat). To ensure that the FACT is dense, moist ( I so dislike that word but “damp” doesn’t work as a replacement….I must think about this) and, above all, wonderfully sticky with an acidic pear drop edge to the sweetness, it is essential to use a fresh pineapple and sucrevergeoise.
I don’t know what would be the substitute for this thick, soft brown sugar which comes in both light and dark versions. The cake pictured at the beginning of this post was made with light sucre vergeoise but I have made one with sucre vergeoise brune (above) which gives more of a burnt toffee flavour and is fantastic in the mouth. I cooked both of these cakes in a non stick, purpose made, heavy based tarte tatin tin which, if you have one, is the way to go. To all those among you who have suffered the same disadvantaged youth as myself, I urge you to make this cake and, in particular, to greedily eat and enjoy it…a feeling of deep unfairness may linger which may be expunged by one or more slices.
Food, Photography & France 
I think I’ve been deprived too!
Join the ever growing legion of those deprived from PUD:)
Well, I r evaluate my mother making PUD a few times way back when, but in the early 70s it was tinned pineapple, and I didn’t much care for PUD!
I’m glad I missed that..😀
Quite right!
It should have said “I recall”
I don’t believe I’ve ever had PUD before, if so I don’t remember. But this does sound and look amazing. I prefer vergeoise blonde to the dark one, which often has artificial color and flavor added to it. Or I use raw cane sugar (muscovado or rapadura or panela), for equally delicious results. Anyway, this sounds fabulous, whatever the chosen sugar!
Good thinking…. had forgotten muscovado
I did have PUD and enjoyed it back in the early-on day. The nut-based concoctions (which were appearing nearly weekly when I was a kid), not so much, and as it has turned out, most of the tree-nut based things are now things my body rejects. Violently. Have to re-try PUD to see what the effect is now, these days.
I hope it agrees with you and that you enjoy it as much as I have…..I’m thinking of it as this year’s Christmas cake:)
As a European, to be precise German, living in the United States for 27 years, my taste buds never quite understood the concept of PUD, yet your delicious recipe convinced me to give it a chance of trial, as I happened to have a ripe pineapple. Thank you for sharing your “wisdom” on that.
That’s good to hear, Cornelia…..in California you’re in a good place for pineapples:)
Wishing you all the best in the New Year Roger.
Thank you so much, Karen and sorry for the delay in replying…..and a very Happy New Year to you and yours.