About Doing New Things & How I Won With Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Having moved to the US I experienced many 'first times': doing things and going to places, and also having different kinds of food. There was my first taco, my first Tex-Mex food, my first glass of Dr. Pepper, my first mac & cheese, and many more, including my first Banana Split. It is a delicious treat, however, it is so big that I am able to eat only a half of it. But I do like it!

The Banana Split in the picture was not my first one - just another one.

 Among others, I also learned about the Pineapple Upside-Down cake here (had neither heard about it nor tasted it in Europe). And of course I decide to make it. I found a ''from the scratch" recipe and baked it - first time. The cake looked very nice but, according to a Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Expert, it did not taste as it was supposed to.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake - attempt #1

 A year later, I decided to make the cake again, using a different recipe though. I did not know that I was supposed to flip the tin straight after taking it out of the oven. It looked quite alright and I just put the upside-down cake on a cupboard. The result was obvious to everybody who had made such a treat before (but not me, at least not then). All the juice was at the bottom of the baking dish. I called it 'a day of the swimming cake'. Of course my upside-down cake no.2 was not good enough to eat it.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake - attempt #2

 Another year passed, and the time came to bake it again. This time I decided to get a yellow cake mix to make things different. I used the same baking tin as usual. Well, unfortunately, it appeared to be too small and some of the brown sugar, light corn syrup and butter mix dripped from the tin on the bottom of the oven. To make matters worse, the baking time given in the recipe, which I followed, was wrong - much too short, so I started opening the oven and checking the cake too early. The result: the worst cake I had ever made. Anyway, a good side of that experience and all the previous ones was that I finally understood the Nature of the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake.
I was determined to make it right so I did not wait another year. After a few days I tried again - with a bigger baking dish and knowing all what I had learned. Attempt #4 was very successful, which was confirmed by the Pineapple Upside-Down Expert. I was happy! Now I know how to make it and bake it well. :)

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake - successful attempt #4