PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE

 

Such a pretty, pretty, retro-looking cake! It's really easy to make, needs hardly any ingredients and so much fun to display (without needing to fiddle with a hundred piping bags and odd nozzles). Comforting, honest, and good looking (if you can't find it in the opposite sex why not have it in a cake?).

 

What you’ll need:

Can of pineapple slices

Bunch of cherries

1 cup butter (softened)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup flour

3 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

How to:

1. Grease your baking dish (i.e., brush down with vegetable oil) and then sieve some sugar over the base. Arrange your pineapple slices to try to cover as much of the base as you can. Drop a cherry in each pineapple hole. I tend to stick them in all the empty spaces I can find. Preheat oven to 200°celsius.

Note: I love pineapple so I cut little chunks and fit then into the gaps between the full pineapple circles.

2. In a large bowl put in your softened butter and sugar and whisk till smooth. Then add the eggs one at a time and keep whisking.

3. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add this to the egg mixture in 2 or 3 batches. Whisk till you have a nice smooth batter.

4. Pour batter on top of your pineapple and cherry arrangement and drop in to oven for about 30 minutes. Once you’re sure the cake is done, extract from oven and let cool for about an hour.

5. While with other cakes moulding or un-moulding them out of the baking dish is a matter determined by your preference, energy levels and whether its burnt and pasted to the bottom the whole point of this cake is to turn it upside down (unless you’ve burnt it and it’s pasted to the bottom – nothing to be done in that case).

So gird your loins young chef and insert a spatula into the sides of your baking dish to try to dislodge your cake. Gently push down on the sides to see how much it will give and whether it’s stuck or not. Best to use a clear baking dish so you can examine the bottom and see if it’s sticking any place. Once you’re sure it’ll give, tilt the cake dish, deftly flip cake into your palm and then slide on to your serving dish.

I’m not sure there’s any way to really explain how to do this – once your cake is tipping out and you think you're going to have a heart attack, you’ll figure it out. Just make sure your cake is cool so it doesn’t break when you start to tilt the dish out.