I made this Pineapple Upside Down cake for our Sunday family dinner.  My stepbrother’s fiance’s mom was in town from Austria and she is gluten-free. So I whipped out my Babycakes Covers the Classics Cookbook and baked up this cinnamony and warm cake.

Since I did not want to spend a fortune on xanthum gum, I used ground flax seed. While that worked for the mini donuts we recently made (because they were small), it didn’t work as well work this full-sized cake. Even though it was more crumbly than I cared for, the taste was the best of any pineapple upside down cake that I’ve ever had!
The other changes I made included:
-Replacing the 1/4 cup of  vanilla and 1/4 cup of hot water (I still added 1 teaspoon of vanilla) with warmed,  reserved juice from the can of pineapple

-Using extra light virgin olive oil since I was out of coconut oil

-Replacing arrowroot with cornstarch

Baking gluten-free foods does require extra ingredients, but I love that it adds a variety of flours and tastes to our diets.

Gluten-Free Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

• ½ cup melted refined coconut oil or canola oil, plus more for brushing the pan
• ¼ cup vegan sugar
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 6 ½-inch-thick pineapple slices
• ½ cup garbanzo and fava bean flour
• ½ cup rice flour
• ½ cup potato starch
• ¼ cup arrowroot
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon xanthan gum
• ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ cup agave nectar
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
• ¼ cup vanilla extract
• ¼ cup hot water

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a 9-inch cake round with parchment paper and lightly coat with coconut oil.

In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar and the 2 teaspoons cinnamon. Sprinkle the bottom of the cake pan with the cinnamon-sugar mix. Arrange the pineapple slices over it. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, potato starch, arrowroot, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, salt, xanthan gum, cardamom, and baking soda. Add the agave nectar, the ½ cup coconut oil, the applesauce, vanilla, and hot water. Stir with a rubber spatula until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter over the pineapple.

Bake for 20 minutes, rotate, then continue baking until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes more. Let cool in the pan on a rack for 30 minutes. Run a knife along the pan’s edge and invert onto a serving plate.