Healthy Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

This is one might tasty cake.  Yes, it's a healthy pineapple upside-down cake.  And by healthy, I mean it's Vegan and diabetic friendly.  That's right, I made a cake that is vegan and diabetic friendly and it tasted good!  My family loved it.  It was a bit of a challenge to find a recipe that I liked, and I did have to tweak it a little for the diabetic part, but overall I was very pleased.

I got the original recipe from Vegan Dream and I only modified the sugar.  I found out in my research that Splenda is not Vegan friendly, so I ended up using Truvia (TM) in place of the sugar and I used Hain organic brown sugar, and just lowered the amount I used.  

Healthy Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

1 20-oz can pineapple slices in unsweetened pineapple juice (reserve the juice)

6-8 Maraschino cherries or pitted fresh cherries

2 TBSP Hain Organic Brown Sugar (more or less as desired)

1 cup white flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

3 TBSP Truvia (TM) sweetener

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup pineapple juice reserved from can of slices

1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 TBSP white vinegar

Spring-form pan or angel food cake pan

Non-stick spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray your pan with non-stick spray all the way up the sides.  Arrange the pineapple decoratively around the pan, filing in the gaps with pieces of pineapple.  Place cherries in holes of the pineapple rings to look pretty.  Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the pineapples and cherries.

Mix together both flours, Truvia (TM), baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, set aside.  In a smaller bowl mix together the reserved juice, applesauce and vinegar.  Quickly mix the wet ingredients into the dry.  The batter will foam up a bit.

Pour the mix into the pan immediately and bake for about 30-35 minutes or until the center is firm.  

This is a quick and simple cake.  Mind you, I'm not going Vegan, and no one in my immediate family is diabetic, I was commissioned by a friend to make this cake for an office birthday party.  But I'm so glad I did!  Actually, I must clarify, I made one on Saturday to try it out and a second on Sunday for my friend.  I just couldn't see making this cake and sending it out the door without finding out if it tasted great or horrible.  Glad it was a winner!

If you'd like to make this and not worry about the diabetic part, 3 TBSP Truvia (TM) is equivalent to 1/2 cup of sugar.  That's quite the difference!  And Truvia (TM) has no calories, so that's a bonus.  I didn't feel so bad when I had seconds.  Or the last leftover piece yesterday.  As for the brown sugar, the original recipe called for 3 TBSP to be used, I cut it down to just under 2 when I made it.

This cake was very tasty and I would definitely make this again.