Gluten Free Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe

I'm mostly posting this recipe so I don't lose it! However, I also know lots of people are gluten free these days and might like to try this recipe.  The cake is light and airy with a wonderful pineapple-y sweetness. It got a big thumbs up from my family!

You need to have almond flour, cup4cup flour and ground flax seed on hand to make it (or substitutes that you feel would be suitable).

The almond flour provides a ton of nutrition plus fiber, protein and a unique ability to avoid blood sugar spikes from sweets.  I use Honeville Almond Flour and buy it from Amazon.

The Cup 4 Cup flour makes the cake light and airy, just like cakes made with wheat flour. (In theory you could use only cup 4 cup flour, however, I find that, due to the rice flour content, baked goods made with just this flour tend to taste like fortune cookies. In my experience, a mix of flours results in a better flavor.) Cup 4 Cup flour can be found on Amazon.

The flax seed adds fiber, heart healthy Omega 3 fatty acids and thickens the batter. Ground flax seeds are sold at most grocery stores, look for the Bob's Red Mill brand. Costco also sells them or you can order online.

A note on sugar: Do not use honey in place of the sugar in this recipe. Honey is a humectant which means it retains moisture. In a cake that will result in mush. I have been there, done that, didn't like it. Use brown sugar or brown sugar blend. If your way of eating won't let you use any type of processed sugar, you could try maple syrup but that could result in a less than ideal cake texture.

This recipe makes 8 servings (12 if you're willing to cut pineapple rings in half).

For the brown sugar topping:

-1/2 stick butter, melted

-1/2 cup brown sugar

-8 or so canned pineapple rings drained (save the liquid, you'll need it for the cake batter)

-Cherries (Maraschino or dried)

Melt the butter and spread in bottom of a 9x13 glass baking dish. Top with brown sugar, stir and spread with a spoon until it covers the bottom of the dish. Top with pineapple rings and decorate with cherries.

For the cake:

-1/2 stick butter, melted

-1/3 cup Splenda brown sugar blend (or regular brown sugar, either is fine)

-All the liquid from the canned pineapple

-1 tbsp vanilla

-3 eggs

-2 tsps. cinnamon

-1 cup almond flour

-1/2 cup cup4cup flour

-1/2 cup ground flax seed

-1 tsp baking soda

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix ingredients in the order listed. Make sure the batter is wet enough to spread--it should be with all the pineapple liquid in it, but since gluten free flours can be weird, add some water if the batter is too thick. Bake for 25 min or until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean

The finished product looks something like this: