Nickey's Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Here's another of Nickey's recipes. I was worried about turning it right-side-up ... no problem, put the cutting board to use! I'm thinking of trying this later with regular yellow cake instead of flavored to see how it turns out. Just found out my co-workers loved it with the extra pudding in it! It shouldn't surprise me but I found it very sweet.

• Ready In: 1 hr
• Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 1 (18 1/4ounce) package  pillsbury moist supreme premium  pineapple cake mix (has pudding in it)
• 3⁄4 cup brown sugar (use 1 cup packed if you like it extra sweet)
• 1⁄2 cup butter
• 1 (20 ounce) can pineapple slices, drained (save juice)
• 1  cup  pineapple juice (should have just enough from saved juice)
• 1⁄3 cup  oil
• 3  eggs
•  maraschino cherry (optional)
•  pecan halves (optional)
• 1 (4 ounce) box vanilla instant pudding mix (add only if there's no pudding in cake mix)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spray 13x9 pan with cooking spray. Then melt the butter in the pan (in oven) while preheating (watch that you don't burn the butter.).
3. Remove pan from oven then sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter in pan.
4. Evenly arrange pineapple slices in the sugar. Then place the cherries in the center of and pecans between the pineapple slices. I don't cut my cherries but it's okay to -- I think they go flat side down if you do but I don't think it matters as long as they're all done the same way.
5. In a large bowl, combine the rest of ingredients, pineapple juice/water mixture, oil, pudding and eggs at low speed until moistened, then 2 minutes at medium. Carefully pour over fruit and nuts.
6. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Immediately invert onto serving platter, pineapple side up.
7. If you make the mistake of adding pudding to a mix with pudding already in it (I did!), you will need more bake time. My toothpick came out clean at 45 minutes but was still mushy in the center of the cake when I turned it over. -- I returned the cake (it was right side up by then) to the oven and baked it for another 10 minutes -- watch that you don't burn the pineapples :).