Scratch pineapple upside down cake

And by scratch I mean scritchy-scratch.

I had a pineapple that they're selling in Denver for half the cost on Maui. They're irresistible even with nothing in mind. I'll admit the pineapple chocolate malted ice cream shake wasn't my best idea, but this cake by insouciant construction is pure simple win. 

Instructions on boxed cake mixes say add 1/4 cup vegetable oil and that seems kind of odd for a cake, instead of butter, but they do turn out reliably tender. And since no butter then cream the sugar into an egg. That's the basis right there. You'll have vanilla and baking powder and flour and a bit of salt and that's about it. 

How much sugar? About a cup, a little less. Pour as much as you intend to eat. 

If you saw this in progress you'd go, "He's quite mad." About 1 cup of flour, a little more, is spooned into a large strainer without measuring save for observing the size of the pile over the bowl of creamed egg and sugar with its vanilla already in there, then the flour is folded into the liquid mixture, just cut through the mixture with a spoon and draw up the bottom to the top. I could see the mixture will be too stiff as I go so water is drizzled from the faucet onto my hand and transferred to the bowl by drips and doing that while folding with the spoon until there is enough liquid included, about 1/8 cup, just before the flour is completely folded. There are still white dots of dry flour visible. 

It is not mixed. Just folded. The flour doesn't have enough time to hydrate completely. Its long wheat molecules cannot untangle and reconnect by sticky gluten. They never rubbed together. And it looks like there's not enough batter, it's thick and does not go to the edges of the pan. It looks like possible disaster.