Lets go Mediterranean!! Fiesta with pineapple!! Ok, when it comes to using pineapple and matching it with a cake..nothin beats Pineapple upside-down cake. This is not my first try at baking the cake..I did try once after reading the recipe from one of my friend's blog (thank you Shamam for sharing the excellent recipe) Her recipe is a bit different from the one I tried today. She suggested for the batter to be steam baked and it turned out well and fluffy. This time around, I used a different approach. I baked the whole cake on its own without the stimming water. So, what was the internal motivation for my second try? I still have some nice pineapple in my fridge and before it turns bad, might as well I use it. I still remember that I got myself all excited after looking into the pictures of the recipe with the glazed pineapple and cherries on top of the cake. Alritey! Without further delay, I dashed into my comfort zone and searched for the ingredients. The ingredients are....
Ingredients..
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup superfine sugar (gula halus)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups oall purpose-flour
2 tsp baking powder
generous 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
Topping
3 tbsp unsalted butter
4tbsp dark corn syrup ( for this recipe, I used golden syrup)
425g canned pineapple rings, drained
4-6 candied cherries, halved
This is how you do it.....
1. Preheat the oven to 160c. Grease a 9-inch round, deep cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
2. Lets make the topping first. Place the butter and corn syrup in a pan and heat gently until melted. Bring to a boil and boil for 2-3 minutes, strirring, until slightly thickened and taffylike.
3. Pour the syrup into the bottom of the prepared pan. This is the nice part! Arrange the pineapple rings and candied cherries in a single layer over the syrup.
4. Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract in a large, heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water and beat with an electric mixer for about 10-15 mins until thick enough to leave a trail when the beaters are lifted.
5. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold in lightly and evenly with a metal spoon.
6. Fold the melted butter into the mixture with a metal spoon until evenly mixed. Spoon into the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour until well risen, firm and golden brown.
7. Let cool in the pan for about 10 mins, then carefully turn out onto a serving plate. Serve warm or cold.
The whole cake came out nicely. This time around, I wasnt able to place the cake in my garden for the photo shoot as it was already dark outside cos I started making the cake quite late in the afternoon. The pictures are not that striking, but the taste was absolutely yummeh! It looked beautiful, taste was nice, texture was fluffy. It will make a fun centre piece for afternoon tea and certainly it brings back many wonderful memories..Many people label this cake as a retro cake....
It is lovely, glistening slices of sweet and sticky caramelized pineapple sitting happily on top of a fluffy white butter cake. Nice to be served warm from the oven. Extra delicious to eat with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream!!!
