I’ve already performed the upside-down thing in my baking past. For a baker, it’s an inevitable, proud stunt. See what I can do! Bake it upside down and flip it over! For instance, two years ago, I baked a pineapple upside-down cake that included fresh pineapple. It was definitely an exercise to peel and slice a fresh pineapple.

But now, I’ve baked a more relaxing cake, since the pineapple here is canned rather than fresh. This recipe can be found in Zoë François’ cookbook, Zoë Bakes Cake.

If you have a baking stone (like a pizza stone), put it in the oven as you preheat the oven to 375°F. If you do, you can bake the cake atop the hot stone to allow the bottom (the top) of the cake to cook evenly.

Grease an 8-inch baking pan. Combine brown sugar, very soft butter, booze, canned and drained pineapples (save the juice for later), and pecans, then spread this mix into the bottom (ultimately the top) of the readied pan. As for the booze, use tablespoons of what you like — like rum or Cointreau or amaretto or Limoncello. I reached for smooth, sweet, lemony Limoncello. The butter included in this mixture must be very soft, because you need to smoothly blend these ingredients by hand.

As should be standard in any cake-baking exercise, weigh your dry ingredients.

Note how the flour in this recipe is actually cake flour.

Use this specific flour to make a soft, tender, and crumbly cake. If you have only all-purpose flour in your pantry, can you make your own cake flour? Yes, you can! Simply measure 1 cup of all-purpose flour, then remove 2 Tbsp. of it, and then add 2 Tbsp. of cornstarch to replace it. Sift this mix together, and there you have it: cake flour.

Cinnamon and nutmeg provide the spiced warmth that we always seem to want in a tart pineapple cake.

Blend the batter in the stand mixer until it is pillowy.

Bake for 52 minutes to arrive at a golden, moist, and sticky cake.

See how the pineapples on the final (flipped) cake resemble the apples atop a pie: semi-soft, warm and sweet. A slice might remind you of the texture of crumb cake. You’ll want a second slice and a third slice and you get the idea. Is this pineapple? It sure is. Surprise yourself with how much you like it.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Zoë Bakes Cakes by Zoē François. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

This is our last cake from Zoë Bakes Cakes, which has been a wonderfully delicious book to bake through. Stay tuned as we will be announcing the next cake-centric book we will be baking through in 2023 soon!

Traditionally our last bake for the year is free choice, and our choices for December 2022 were ~

Best-Ever Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake