Food for Thought

The invasion of the pineapple upside down cakes! When retro foods make a majorcomeback

Pineapple upside down cakes are here again. Everywhere. Freaking. Where.
Photo via Veronica's Cornucopia
Fresh from H-E-B
Photo by Marene Gustin
Ooh La La's Piña colada cupcake
Photo by Jordan Chan
The pineapple upside-down cake at BlackFinn
Photo by Marene Gustin

You know how you haven’t thought about something in years? Like maybe a red VW Bug, and then suddenly you start seeing them everywhere?

That’s been me and pineapple upside down cakes lately.

Seriously, I can’t remember the last time I ate, let alone saw, one of those desserts so popular in the early decades of the 20th century.

And now, here they are. Every. Freaking. Where.

Dad came home from walking around H-E-B’s Buffalo Market one day and said: “I almost bought a pineapple upside down cake. I haven’t had one in ages and it looked so good. But I was afraid I’d just eat the whole thing.”

Say what? A pineapple upside down cake?

“Yep.”

Then the second one I ran across was at the new BlackFinn American Grille. Executive chef John Turner has added a few Houston dishes to the Midtown branch of this national chain, mostly some creative Tex-Mex turns and a pretty good chopped seafood salad. But when he offered dessert last week it was a pineapple upside down carrot cake with cream cheese whipped cream topping.

“Frankly, I’m surprised pineapple upside down cakes ever faded," O'Donnell says. "I think it’s a great dessert. Especially warm with vanilla ice cream on top!”

It was small, like a single serving size, topped (bottomed?) with one slice of canned pineapple and, yes, one bright red maraschino cherry.

“Why did you ever think of this?” I ask.

“Why not!” laughs Turner. “It just sounded like a cool idea.”

And, because these things always happen in threes, a few days later I get a box of cupcakes from Ooh La La delivered to celebrate the opening of Vanessa O’Donnell’s third location at Town and Country Village in Memorial.

I opened the box and . . .

No. There was no pineapple upside down cupcake in there. That would just be too serendipitous.

But, when I looked at the enclosed brochure one of the Friday special flavors at the dessert boutiques is called . . . No. Stop getting ahead of me. It is called a Pina Colada.

But, wait for it, the description of said cupcake is: Pineapple upside down cake topped with vanilla buttercream, toasted coconut and a maraschino cherry.

“We actually had a real pineapple upside down cupcake,” O’Donnell says. “But it was a four-step process to bake and it didn’t sell very well.” So she created the Pina Colada with the caramelized pineapple baked inside the cupcake. But it is topped with a bright red cherry.

“It has all the same flavors of the cake,” she says. “Frankly, I’m surprised pineapple upside down cakes ever faded. I think it’s a great dessert. Especially warm with vanilla ice cream on top!”

According to most food historians, upside down cakes — with fruit on the bottom and cake mix on top — were made in iron skillets over an open fire as far back as the Middle Ages. But it wasn’t until Jim Dole’s Hawaiian Pineapple Company, now known as the Dole Company, developed a way to can and ship neat little pineapple slices that the pineapple upside down cake became a classic.

In 1925, the company sponsored a contest calling for canned pineapple recipes and 2,500 of the 6,000 entries were for pineapple upside down cakes. Apparently it got popular pretty fast.

I doubt the following recipe from the Dole Company website was one of those early 2,500 ones but I’m pretty sure it hasn’t changed too much from the 1920s. Except they used real butter, which I suggest over margarine anyway. It makes a very festive dessert for company this time of year and if you’re real lazy, like me, you can always use a boxed yellow cake mix.

Or, just get the one from H-E-B like I did for Thanksgiving Day. Just $4.98 and you can always plate it, warm it up and pass it off as one you baked yourself.

Bake Your Own

Ingredients
2/3 cup margarine, divided
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 can (20 oz.) Dole Pineapple Slices
10 maraschino cherries
3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
2 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions
1. Melt 1/3 cup margarine in 10-inch cast iron skillet. Remove from heat. Add brown sugar and stir until blended.
2. Drain pineapple slices well, reserve 2 tablespoons juice. Arrange pineapple slices in sugar mixture. Place cherry in center of each slice.
3. Beat remaining 1/3 cup margarine with 1/2 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, lemon peel and juice, and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Blend into creamed mixture alternately with sour cream and reserved juice.
4. Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually beat in remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar to make stiff meringue. Fold into batter. Pour over pineapple in skillet.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes or until cake tests done. Let stand 10 minutes, then invert onto serving plate. Serve warm or cold.

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visiting popup bagels

A highly opinionated take on Houston's venture-backed new bagel shop

Courtesy of PopUp Bagels

Houstonians are lining up to try PopUp Bagels.

It’s hard to remember the last restaurant opening with as much fanfare as PopUp Bagels. Houstonians lined up in the heat for the bakery’s grand opening on Saturday, June 13.

Shawn the Food Sheep included a glimpse of the line in his review below.

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Eager to see what the fuss is all about, I stopped by around 10 am on Thursday, June 18. Thankfully, only about a dozen people stood in line ahead of me, and I had a bag of six bagels in less than 20 minutes.

The frequency with which it boils and bakes it bagels sets PopUp Bagels apart from Houston’s traditional, mostly family-owned bagel shops. Instead of making large batches early in the morning that may get refreshed once or twice per day, PopUp Bagels is constantly boiling and baking smaller batches of a couple dozen bagels at a time throughout its operating hours. That's why customers will hear the cry of “hot bagels” echoing through the small, counter-service space every time more emerge from the oven.

PopUp is different from traditional bagel shops in a couple of other important ways. First, the menu only list five varieties — plain, poppy, salt, sesame, and everything, which is topped with poppy seeds, salt, and sesame seeds. And, it only serves whole bagels — no slicing or toasting. The store’s motto of “grip, rip, and dip” explains how it expects customers to consume their bagels. Packaged lox are available, but diners have to assemble the sandwich themselves — either off-site or at one of the couple of cafe tables outside.

PopUp Bagels also doesn’t sell individual bagels. Instead, diners must order a minimum of three bagels and a schmear — various cream cheese and butters are available — for $15. Six bagels and a schmear costs $24. A dozen bagels and two schmears is $46. As a point of comparison, the Bagel Shop Bakery in Bellaire charges $25 for 13 bagels and two, 8-ounce schmears.

So, how is it?

Fresh, hot bagels are inherently superior to hours-old bagels. That’s a real advantage for PopUp Bagels. On my visit, the fresh-from-the-oven plain bagels were so hot that they needed a couple of minutes before we could "grip and rip" them.

As for the bagels themselves, they certainly look the part. The outside is deeply caramelized with an even distribution of toppings that adhere well to the exterior.

But the biggest shortcoming is texture. Bagels, obviously, are supposed to be chewy, but all six of the bagels that an ex-pat New Yorker friend and I ordered walked the line between chewy and underbaked. That may be deliberate, as softer bagels are easier to “grip and rip.”

It's also possible that the bakery’s new employees are still dialing in procedures, and that a different day would yield bagels with a crispier texture. Colloquially, friends who have also visited the shop — both in Houston and other cities — disagreed with my assessment of the texture.

The plain is just that, with a very mild flavor. Both the scallion cream cheese and salted butter had a pleasantly creamy texture and boosted the dining experience.

Overall, PopUp is competitive with Houston’s best bagels. That’s promising, since Stripes — the equity growth firm that bought PopUp Bagels in 2023 — has announced plans to open more than 300 locations nationwide.

But you won’t see me driving half an hour or standing in a long line to get another taste. Houston’s locally-owned bagel shops are more convenient, less expensive, and just as good.

Courtesy of PopUp Bagels

Houstonians are lining up to try PopUp Bagels.

openings news-you-can-eat breakfast popup bagels