This classic pineapple upside-down cake makes a fun centre piece for afternoon tea and brings back many childhood memories.
Ingredients
- butter (for greasing)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 6 slices canned pineapple in juice (plus 3 tablespoons of the juice)
- 11 candied cherries (approx. 75g total weight)
- 100 grams all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 stick soft butter
- ½ cup superfine sugar
- 2 large eggs
Method
Pineapple Cake Upside-Down
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6/400ºF. Butter a tarte Tatin tin (24cm/9 inches wide at the top and 20cm/8 inches diameter at the bottom) or use a 23cm / 8-9 inch cake tin (neither loose-bottomed nor springform).
- Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar on top of the buttered base, and then arrange the pineapple slices to make a circular pattern as in the picture.
- Fill each pineapple ring with a glace cherry, and then dot one in each of the spaces in between.
- Put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, butter, caster sugar and eggs into a food processor and run the motor until the batter is smooth. Then pour in the 3 tablespoons of pineapple juice to thin it a little.
- Pour this mixture carefully over the cherry-studded pineapple rings; it will only just cover it, so spread it out gently.
- Bake for 30 minutes, then ease a spatula around the edge of the tin, place a plate on top and, with one deft – ha! – move, turn it upside-down.
