Pineapple Upside Down Muffins

This early morning food was inspired by the FridgeFood Diva!

FridgeFood is the link to the first place I found these enjoyable treats.

Pineapple Upside Down Muffins

1 box yellow cake mix
1 large can sliced pineapple rings
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1/3 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup brown sugar
12 maraschino cherries, cut in half.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Using up to 24 muffin cups, grease very well and set aside.

Cut each pineapple slice into 4 pieces and set aside.  Save the juice in a 2-cup measure. 

In large bowl stir cake mix, eggs, oil, and reserved juice.  Beat well.  If batter seems too thick, add a tiny bit of water.  You can do the mixing with an electric beater if you want. I did not.  I used a whisk to get a good arm workout.

In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar and melted butter.  Place 1 1/2 teaspoon of this sweet mixture into the bottoms of the greased muffin cups.  Top each bit of mixture with 2 pineapple pieces then one cherry on top.

Using a 1/4 cup portion scoop, plop cake batter onto the cherry/pineapple/sugar/butter mixture.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.    Remove from oven and let cool on rack for 5 minutes ONLY, but do wait the full five minutes.  Run a knife around the edge of each muffin then flip the pan over onto a clean counter.  The muffins should fall out of the pan.  If they don't, you have a mess on your hands.  A sweet mess, but...

Look carefully to see the cherry in the center of each muffin...

These went over rather well.