Cakes That Defined a Decade

Roaring Into the Twenties

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake: Available every Friday at Alaska Cake Studio in Anchorage

Moving into a new decade, we find ourselves reflecting on the delightfully sweet lives we live at Alaska cAKe Studio. We realized cakes have been our focus here in Anchorage for more than two decades!

Co-owner and Head Pastry Chef, Will McDonald, found his passion for creating and decorating unique, mouthwatering cakes at a young age in Homer, Alaska.

He pursued that passion to a degree and eventually opened our bakery and boutique downtown. Two decades of cake! Safe to say we are all the beneficiaries of his passion.

Lets go further back…

Two decades of cake sounds like a long time to us, but we wanted to dive deeper into the past.

We took a trip through history’s archives. Back a hundred years to a time when prohibition was dissolved, the popularity of Jazz was on the rise and the US and world economies were booming: The Roaring Twenties.

So what were they having for dessert then?

We found some popular suggestions we presume were short-lived experiments. Hollandaise pudding anyone? But one of Cake Studio’s popular cake’s came up over and over again as a 1920’s favorite…

Pineapple Upside Down cAKe!

A slice of Pineapple Heaven

Upside-Down Cakes weren’t new in the 1920’s. They had been baked for centuries. They served as a simple way for cooks to display a cake cooked in a cast-iron pan in a beautiful manner. But pineapple is a tropical fruit and was hard to come by, so it wasn’t part of those first Upside-Down Cakes.

Why Pineapple?

In 1911, an engineer employed by James Dole developed a device that would slice their pineapple thin, making it easier to distribute their product around the world. Pineapple would soon become a favorite in American households. The ease of an Upside-Down Cake and the prosperous economy, paired with the popularity of pineapple, created the perfect scenario for one of the longest lasting, traditional cake recipes.

First Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Recipe

The earliest recipe for pineapple upside down cake can be traced back to a Seattle-based fundraising magazine published in 1924! Sylvia Lovegren writes in the American Century cookbookWhile rooting around in old women’s magazines I found a Gold Medal Flour ad with a full-page, four-color picture of Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. A round cake with six slices of pineapple, candied red cherries, and a brown sugar glaze. The date: November 1924.”

Indulge In Your Own Cake

We share the pineapple passion of our fellow Americans from a century ago. That’s why every Friday is “Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Friday” at Alaska cAKe Studio inside the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall.

You can also order your cakes in Anchorage by phone (907-272-3995) or online.

Indulge in some of cAKe’s Pineapple Upside-Down Cake and remind yourself, your friends and your family, the delight of this century-old favorite!