In a 9x13 baking dish add ¼ cup of vegan butter and ½ cup brown sugar.
Place pan into a preheating oven at 350 degrees F. Allow to cook until butter melts. Mix brown sugar and butter together in pan and set aside.
Slice pineapple into ¼-1/2 inch thick slices and then quarter them, remove the inner corner as that is where the hard centers/cores are.
Slice cherries in half and remove pits.
Arrange pineapple and cherries in pan. Remember that you want the dome of the cherry pointed down because it will be the top of the cake once baked and flipped.
Set aside.
In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
Add in vanilla, vinegar, oil.
Add in water and orange juice then mix until smooth and no flour steaks remain.
Pour batter into pan and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted and come out clean.
Let the cake rest in the pan for 5-10 minutes before flipping over onto a large surface to reveal the pineapple and cherries on top.
Slice and serve.
Notes
Recipe Tips
You can make your vegan pineapple cake with canned pineapple and maraschino cherries or fresh, the preference is yours.
If using fresh pineapple and cherries make sure to remove the pits and stems from the cherries. I find this easiest by using a rounded frosting tip from my decorating collection and poking the cherries down onto the tip to pop out the seed. Metal straws and other devices can also work well. You can also just cut the cherries in half and use them that way.
For fresh pineapple chunks, making them into rings is really hard and time-consuming. Instead, turn them into wedges about ¼ inch thick. You can scatter them around in nice designs and fit more pineapple per slice. When using fresh pineapple I opt for using orange juice as the liquid because it adds a nice citrus flavor and is easier to keep on hand as opposed to pineapple juice.
If you plan on using canned pineapple rings then reserve the juice amount requested and simply use that.