Instructions: The popularity of pineapple upside-down cake - an American standard - can be traced to 1925 when the Hawaiian Pineapple Co. (now Dole Food Co.) sponsored a cooking contest to promote its relatively new product: canned pineapple.

No matter the combination, upside-down cakes are easy to prepare with simple, down-to-earth flavors, accentuated by the caramelized fruit.

Any fruit can be used. When peaches are in season, use them. When apples are at their peak, use them. Try a combination of fresh and dried fruits such as apples and dried cranberries. Even toss in nuts.

When fresh fruit isnt available, one of the beauties of upside-down cakes is that canned fruits work just as well. If you dont feel like making a cake from scratch, gussy up a cake mix.

Upside-cakes are modest, but they can be elegant, too. For example, amaretto pear upside-down cake, a recipe from the California Pear Advisory Board, raises the humble upside-down cake from simple to sophisticated.

Sliced pears are placed in a brown sugar-and-honey mixture and baked in individual pans underneath a butter cake batter flavored with almond liqueur.

Christine Aguiar of the pear board said, "It has a melt-in-your-mouth texture, and with whipped cream, its divine." Perhaps upside-down cakes popularity lies in the moist, rich texture that baking in fruit juices gives the cake. Or perhaps its the element of surprise, that moment of discovery as you flip the cake and find a buried treasure.

An upside-down cake is made by covering the bottom of a cake pan with butter and brown sugar topped with decoratively arranged fruit, then cake batter.

The traditional cake is prepared in a skillet or Dutch oven and baked on the stovetop. Today, cooks are more likely to use baking pans and an oven. Any baking pan will do. Oblong cake pans are popular, but tube or bundt pans make a pretty presentation.

During baking, the sugar, butter and fruit juices combine to create a caramelized glaze.

Before serving, the cake is inverted onto a serving plate so the caramelized fruit becomes the top of the cake.

Removing the cake should not be difficult. Just slide a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake. Place a plate on top of the pan and invert. If some of the topping and fruit sticks, just scrape it out and add it to the top of the cake.

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