Pineapple upside-down cake

This cake is an old classic and although I’ve had this recipe for a while, I don’t bake this cake as often. But I chanced upon a tin of pineapples while doing my weekly shop and thought, why not?

I personally enjoy getting straight to the recipe when something has caught my fancy, so here goes:

Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter
30g soft light brown sugar
4-7 canned pineapple rings
4-7 glazed cherries (optional)
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
175g self-raising flour (or use 1 tsp baking powder per cup of flour)
1/4 tsp mixed spices – nutmeg + cinnamon
1 tbsp dark rum
1/4 cup coconut cream

Method:

Measure out all the ingredients. Preheat the oven at 180°C.

In a pan, heat 50g butter & 30g brown sugar on a low heat. Once melted, use a whisk and mix well. Pour this into your baking tin and ensure it spreads well across the base. Then line the base with the pineapple rings.

I used a silicon cake mould which is 9 inches in diameter. This allowed me to fit 7 pineapple rings. If you use a smaller tin you can use fewer rings. I didn’t have any cherries, put if you do, you can add one into the centre of each pineapple ring.

For the cake batter, whisk the remaining 100g each of sugar and butter till light and creamy. Add the eggs and whisk well. Add the flour & spices and finally add the coconut cream and rum. If the batter feels too thick, add ~1 tbsp of the pineapple juice from the tin.

Spread the batter over the pineapple rings and level it out with a spatula. Bake for 20-30 mins till a toothpick inserted into it comes out clean. Let the cake cool before you invert it onto a serving dish. This is important!

The reason I like this recipe is because I find the sweetness between the sponge & pineapple is just right for me. Other recipes have added much more sugar in both the base sauce and the batter. This does result in a softer cake I suppose, but I was happy with the texture I achieved.