Animated Eats: The Upside Down Flint-Rubble Double Bubble Cake

If you lived in Ottawa at any point in the 80s, you saw one of these cartoons on CJOH at noon - the underrated "Rocket Robin Hood", retro "Spider-Man", or the classic Hanna-Barbera creation "The Flintstones". One of my most cherished childhood memories is of me coming home from school and watching Fred and Barney's pre-historic adventures while eating a hot dog my mom made me for lunch.  On this day back in 1961, the episode "In the Dough" featured Fred and Barney posing as their wives in order to win a baking competition. The recipe used was for a dessert their wives dubbed the upside-down Flint-Rubble bubble cake. As the actual recipe for this was just a part of animated lore, one would assume that if it existed, it would show that the cake was baked in a single pan with its toppings (some sort of chopped or sliced fruits) on the bottom of the pan before the batter is poured in to form a baked-on topping after the cake is inverted - hence it being “upside-down”. To pay tribute to this cartoon cake, I decided to post a recipe from another childhood memory of mine - looking through my mom's copy of The all new Purity Cook Book: A Complete Guide of Canadian Cooking. I always loved the picture of the pineapple upside-down cake they used, and I was crushed when I saw they used a black and white photo for the reproduction of the original 1967 edition I have. So yabba-dabba-doo yourself a favour, and celebrate this day in TV food history by making this as a St. Patrick's Day dessert; if you insist on having a wee bit o' the green, you sticklers can use green Maraschino cherries in the recipe below.

Ingredients:

pineapple rings (fresh or canned, your choice)
Maraschino cherries (optional)
1 egg
250 mL milk
5 mL vanilla
200 g white sugar
190 g flour
100 g brown sugar, lightly packed
65 g shortening (butter or margarine can be substitistied as technically any fat that’s used in baking is considered “shortening”)
40 g butter or margarine
10 g baking powder
5 g salt

1. Preheat the oven to 176°C. Melt the 40 g butter/margarine and pour it in a 20 x 20 cm baking pan.
2. Sprinkle the brown sugar on what's in the baking pan, then cover it with the pineapple rings; if desired, place a cherry on the center on the rings.
3. In a bowl, combine the remaining sugar and whatever you are using for shortening, then add the egg and the vanilla. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.
4. Blend together the flour, baking powder, and the salt in a separate bowl. Add the contents to the first bowl, then mix everything together. Pour in the milk and then mix again.
5. Pour the batter over the contents of the baking pan. Bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes. Once the cake is done, invert it onto a serving plate immediately. Serve warm.