Individual Pineapple Upside Down Cakes

My dad is a huge Pineapple Upside-Down Cake fan, and ever since I mentioned that I saw this recipe at Allrecipes.com, he has been requesting that I make them for him. It is a very simple recipe using a boxed cake mix, that can be whipped up very quickly.

Serves 12
Adapted from Allrecipes.com

-2/3 cup packed brown sugar
-1/3 cup butter, melted
-2 (20 ounce) cans sliced pineapple (in 100% pineapple juice), juice reserved
-1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
-3 large eggs
-1/3 cup vegetable oil
-12 maraschino cherries, halved (if desired)


Directions

-In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and butter. Spoon into 24 muffin cups that have been lightly sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. (I used about 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons per muffin cup.)
-Drain pineapple, reserving the juice. Trim pineapple to fit the muffin cups; place one ring in each cup. (I cut about 1/4 of the pineapple ring out and reshaped the pineapple slice into a ring and placed them into the muffin cups. Each can of pineapple only had 10 slices in them, so for the extra muffin cups I placed 2-3 pieces in each muffin cup of the pineapple that I had cut out of the other rings.)
-In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, eggs, oil and 1-1/4 cups of the reserved pineapple juice; beat with a mixer until thoroughly combined. Spoon over pineapple, filling each cup 3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in to middle of the cake comes out clean.
-Immediately invert onto wire racks to cool. Place a cherry in the center of each pineapple ring. (I used a wire rack set over a baking sheet because some of the sugar mixture will drip through the rack onto the counter otherwise.)



Notes: These are very cute, and a good idea for a party. Be careful because the sugar and pineapple mixture is very hot, therefore you must make sure that the cakes separate from the muffin tins when you invert them. It would be a good idea to run a knife around the muffin cups before turning them out onto your wire rack. I say this because one of them stuck in there for me, and when I lifted the pan it fell onto my foot and burned it pretty bad (That's what I get for baking barefoot). No permanent damage, but I wouldn't want that to happen to anyone else. Also, I had some extra cake batter left over, so I just placed in a mini bundt cake pan and baked it along side the muffin tins.