And I Shall Call Him.....Mini Me

I love all things mini when it comes to food. They're just so cute, you can't help but go "awwwww". But why are we limited to making mini frosted cakes in the form of cupcakes? Why not other types of cake? How about.......a mini Pineapple Upside Down Cake? I think YES!

Sauce
2/3 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C butter
1 t vanilla extract


Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 C vegetable oil
1 t caramel extract


Topping
1 can Maraschino cherries
2 cans sliced pineapple rings



Preheat oven to 350.

Mmmmm, cherries

Drain the cans of pineapple and reserve 1 C of the liquid. Drain the cherries, throw that juice out. (Be careful, those cherries will stain EVERYTHING!)
On the stove top in a small saucepan melt the butter with the brown sugar over low heat. Once they are melted together, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Let cool slightly. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, eggs, vegetable oil, and caramel. Add the 1 C of pineapple liquid.
Evenly divide the butter/sugar sauce into each opening. This comes out to be about 1 T or so per opening.
Place one pineapple ring in each opening of a muffin pan (if using a standard size muffin pan, the rings won't lay flat, they will curve up a bit, or you can trim them so they do lay flat). Place a cherry inside each opening of a pineapple ring. 
Fill the openings about 2/3 full with the cake mix.  Bake for about 22-25 minutes.

Make sure there's a baking sheet under those cakes!

When the cakes are done (the toothpick test!), pull them out of the oven and immediately invert the pan onto a cooling rack that is over another baking sheet. This will allow the cakes to drain off any excess liquid, and will make cleaning up that excess liquid so much easier. In short, DO NOT just invert them onto a baking sheet (as you see here). This will result in Pineapple Upside Down Goo. Not yummy cake.

These little cakes are so yummy and a perfect change from a frosted cupcake. Plus, there's fruit! So that counts as fruit for breakfast, right mom?!