Basically, I was thinking I should make banana bread to get rid of the bananas, but I saw the pineapple and thought maybe I should make pineapple upside-down cake instead. Then I though "Put those hands together, my friend." Well, I didn't bother looking to see if anybody had ever done this before; instead, I just turned to my trusty copy of "The Joy of Cooking". The recipe for banana bread is quick and easy, and I fully endorse it. The recipe for pineapple upside-down cake is pretty good, if I remember my past exploits correctly; although, I've definitely found better recipes online (sorry, I can't remember where, it was years ago).
I was only using the top of the pineapple upside-down cake recipe, which is basically: melt butter in pan, add brown sugar, arrange pineapple and cherries, pour batter on top--very simple, only the recipe wants to use a cast-iron pan, and mine doesn't fit inside my tiny oven. I chose to use my large (1 Liter?) souffle dish that I used bought for the Amaretto Souffle. I figured this would be better for the banana bread too, since it's usually cooked in a loaf pan with steep sides.
In the end, it all tasted pretty good. It's not pretty though. I used entirely too much butter and sugar for the top; although, some may argue I used just the right amount, since the caramel topping ended up coating the sides as well. Instead of canned pineapple rings, I used chunks I cut from the fresh pineapple, so that didn't look so pretty, and they didn't stick to the top very well, probably because of the too much caramel topping. The banana bread also ended up being much more moist and cakey. I don't know if that's just from the recipe, or if the extra moisture and oil from the topping had something to do with it. I also had to cook it extra long to firm up the center of the bread. It was only about 15 minutes extra.
