Right around 5pm HWMMS asked me  “so what do you plan on doing tonight?”

AND THIS POST appeared in my timeline from The Splendid Table.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

True story – Pineapple Upside Down Cake is one of those random foods I NEED TO HAVE AT THE READY in my pantry for the moment I have the craving. Hence I ALWAYS have (too many) cans of sliced pineapple and a random yellow cake mix on hand. Because you never know.

Me: (Opening up the recipe link) OH MY GOD THIS LOOKS SO GOOD.

HWMMS: What?

Me: IT’S PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE!

HWMMS: So, why don’t you make one?

Me: I’M PLANNING ON IT. (Yes, I was shouting.)

I clicked on the recipe in the link above knowing it would be “fancy” and I would have to improvise at least one of the ingredients. And sadly, cake by scratch would have to do without cake flour because during the great pre-pandemic-pantry-purge I threw out the little bit left in the box and didn’t replace, yet.

So no cake flour.

Or sliced almonds. As delicious as that cake looked like with the nuts, my version will always be without nuts.

And no sour cream. Crap. Although, I dTo have dried buttermilk powder and lemon juice. And Greek yogurt. Hmmmm. he last time I played with yogurt as a substitute, I was not so successful (although it was an accident, I used VANILLA flavoured instead of plain. In Baked Spaghetti. Yeah, not great. )

SCREW IT. This is not the time for cake by scratch, I’m sticking to my fancy up my box ‘o yellow!

BUT LO! What is this strange occurrence? I have an actual PINEAPPLE sitting in my refrigerator? DURING A PANDEMIC? WHO HAS A PINEAPPLE DURING A PANDEMIC?

(Raises hand!)

Of course there’s a REASON. You see, two weeks ago when I was adding random things to a grocery cart in the middle of the night awaiting my pick up date in a few days, I stumbled upon the pre-cut cubed pineapple section of the website. Perhaps it was suggested to me, I don’t know for sure but I do know at that moment I really wanted pineapple, and I wanted it before it will end up costing $27 because transporting pineapples in the middle of time of Corona isn’t exactly “essential” so into the cart it went.

When I went to pick up the groceries, the pre-cut cubed pineapple was substituted with a whole pineapple. Since this did not give me immediate satisfaction, the pineapple has been sitting in the fridge for about two weeks now, just staring at me.

UNTIL TODAY. MWHAHAHAHHAHA. Your turn to shine pandemic pineapple!

I even cut off the top to try to grow another. (Which never works despite what you see on the internet, but I’ll try again.)

So, that’s why my cake has chunky pineapple pieces instead of the pretty round cuts that people like to stick cherries in the center.

When I do boxed cake, I always spice it up, instead of water I use milk. instead of oil I’ll use butter. I add extra vanilla. Sometimes I’ll add a packet of pudding, depends on how I feel and what I have available.

Tonight. I used milk. And a cup of my sourdough discard. And butter. And three eggs. And a bunch of pumpkin pie spice.

And it turned out fantastic.