Duncan Hines Pineapple Upside Down Cake

     Have you ever seen a grown dutch oven cook cry? I consider it nothing short of a miracle any time I remove an upside down cake from my dutch oven and invert it perfectly onto a platter. As I was photographing this finished Pineapple Upside Down Cake the plate tipped and most of the cake landed in a pile of crumbs in the grass. I was able to salvage a few slices and our wild turkeys happily squabbled over the rest.
     In any event, the cake was very delicious and was made from a box of Duncan Hines Pineapple Supreme Deliciously Moist Cake Mix. The recipe can be found here and on the side of the package. You need to bake it in your 12 inch dutch oven or even your cast iron skillet. The cake baked with 12 coals in a ring around the bottom, 16 in a ring around the outside of the lid with 8 briquettes spaced evenly in the center. In 45 minutes the cake was ready when a tester came out clean. A prepared mix makes this old fashioned classic incredibly easy and extremely moist. Substitute walnut or pecan halves for the maraschino cherries or serve it naked like I did using only the sweetened pineapple slices.

Duncan Hines Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Topping
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 20 oz can pineapple slices, drained, juice reserved from can
Maraschino cherries (optional)
Cake
1 package Duncan Hines Pineapple Supreme 10.25 oz cake mix
1 3.4 oz package vanilla instant pudding and pie filling
4 large eggs
1 cup water OR juice saved from can of pineapple slices
1/2 cup oil

     Lightly oil or spray 12 inch dutch oven; line with parchment paper.
     Pour melted butter into prepared dutch oven.
     Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar.
     Arrange pineapple slices over brown sugar, place cherries in center of pineapple rings.
     Measure one cup of juice from drained pineapple (if there is not enough juice, add enough water to equal one cup of liquid).
     Combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, pineapple juice and oil in large mixing bowl.
     Beat at medium speed with electric mixer for 2 minutes.
     Pour batter evenly over fruit in dutch oven.
     Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean.
     Let cool for 45 minutes before lifting from oven and inverting onto plate.