Vegan Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes

These cupcakes are some of the easiest I’ve ever made. No fillings, no frosting, these only take about 10 minutes to prepare before baking. My friends referred to these as “breakfast cupcakes”. They are extremely sweet, dense, and fairly heavy.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcake

 

Ingredients

-1 cup margarine (I used a cup of soy free earth balance)
-1 cup sugar
-2 cups flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp salt
-8 tbs arrow root
-1/4 cup oil (I used safflower oil)
-1/2 cup almond milk
-1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°
2. Combine all cupcake ingredients in a bowl and beat until smooth. The order of adding  ingredients isn't terribly important in this recipe, just make sure everything gets blended well.

Pineapple Topping

 

Ingredients

-1/2 cup melted margarine
-1 can crushed pineapple
-3/4 cup brown sugar

Assembly

I made these cupcakes two ways to see which would come out better. Some in cupcake holders and others in the unlined pan. I wouldn't say one came out better than the other, it will just depend on your taste. If you are bringing these somewhere I would recommend making them inside the liners, they will be a lot easier to transport.

For the unlined cupcakes I greased the pan with butter and sprinkled it with some flour to prevent the cakes from sticking.

 

1. In the bottom of each cup place 1 tbs melted butter, 1 tbs brown sugar and 1 tbs crushed pineapple.

I would recommend not using the standard pineapple chunks that come in the can but putting them through a food processor or chopping them by hand. If your chunks are to large they will take up to much room in the pan.

 

2. Spread a large spoon full of cupcake batter over the pineapple mixture. These will rise reasonably so I would not fill these up to the brim. 

I would fill your cupcakes a little less than these, I had a lot of over flow after baking. This is easy to scrap off though.

 3. Bake for 20 minutes. Give them at least 10 minutes to cool down before trying to remove them from the pan.


To remove the cupcakes from the pan I slide a knife around the edges of each of them to loosen them up. I flipped the cupcake pan onto a lined cookie sheet and pounded the back of it to get the cupcakes to slide out. If you have any trouble getting them out make sure that they are mostly cooled down, and even if they come out looking like mush they still taste great.

The cupcakes in the liners can be eaten with a fork and do not need to be removed from their wrappers.