Reba McEntire's Trick for Perfect Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Came From Her Mom
The Happy's Place star actually learned the easy baking hack from her mama.
As the weather gets warmer, nothing hits a sweet tooth craving quite like a slice of pineapple upside-down cake. And lucky for us, Reba McEntire has revealed her family’s delicious recipe, including a tried-and-true trick for a decadent caramelized pineapple topping.
The Voice Coach alum star has more than a few mouthwatering dessert recipes up her sleeve, including a “seriously addictive” sweet treat that her boyfriend Rex Linn always wants in the house. And McEntire’s Happy’s Place co-star and longtime friend Melissa Peterman told NBC Insider that her banana pudding with vanilla wafers and peanut butter is “amazing.”
And once you learn about McEntire’s recipe for pineapple upside-down cake, you’ll see why it’s a family favorite. Read on for all the details.
Reba McEntire’s secret to a perfect pineapple upside-down cake is so simple
McEntire’s recipe for pineapple upside-down cake was actually created by her mom, Jacqueline McEntire, who passed away in 2020.
“Mama loved to make this,” the country legend writes in her cookbook, Not That Fancy, which features her own recipes as well as some from her friends, family, boyfriend Rex Linn, and her restaurant, Reba's Place. And this sweet dessert is definitely one of McEntire’s favorites. “I love Mama’s pineapple upside-down cake,” she told Audible in a 2023 interview.
Mama’s secret? Make the whole pineapple upside-down cake in a cast iron pan. “Instead of making it in a baking dish, she would use her cast-iron skillet,” McEntire shares in Not That Fancy. “As a kid I thought this was the height of fancy cooking!”
Cast iron pans have been around for centuries, according to America’s Test Kitchen, and are a coveted piece of cookware because they retain heat very well and can develop a natural nonstick surface over time, making it pretty handy for pineapple upside-down cake.
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McEntire's recipe (via AllRecipes) includes traditional ingredients for cake batter — all-purpose flour, salt, baking powder, butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, milk — but the country star's mama also adds a big dollop of sour cream to make the cake extra moist. For the pineapple topping, you’ll melt butter and brown sugar in your cast iron skillet and then arrange a can of pineapple rings on top of the sweet mixture. The cake batter then gets poured right on top of the pineapples directly in the cast iron pan and then you’re ready to bake.
Once the cake is done baking, McEntire notes in her cookbook, per an excerpt published in AllRecipes, that it needs to rest for exactly 15 minutes before you can flip it over onto a plate where you’ll see the beautiful caramelized pineapple topping.
You can find the full recipe for Mama’s Pineapple Upside-Down Cake in Not That Fancy: Simple Lessons on Living, Loving, Eating, and Dusting Off Your Boots.
Some of Reba McEntire’s favorite desserts include more of her mom’s recipes
McEntire also shares in Not That Fancy that her mother’s banana pudding recipe is also a family favorite. "Every year, Mama would make banana pudding to leave out for Santa Claus," McEntire writes (via Southern Lady Magazine). "That just so happened to be Daddy's favorite dessert too!"
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The “I’m a Survivor” singer has also called cheesecake beignets the “best dessert ever” and she’s also known to really, really love cookies. “Cookies, cake, or pie? Me? Cookies,” McEntire said during a Q&A with CMT. “I like all cookies, if you’re keeping notes.”
