Pineapple Upside Down Cake

by Barry Lewis

Ingredients

100 grams caster sugar + 1 tbsp for tin
little butter to grease tin
small tub glace cherries
4 pineapple rings + reserve 2 tbsp juice from can)
100 grams plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
100 grams butter
100 grams caster sugar
2 large eggs

As I mention in the video, pineapple upside down cake and I have a bit of a history. Yep in the good old days when I was at school we did some basic cooking ‘attempts’ and pineapple upside down cake was one of those. I made one, it was terrible and wobbly all over, plus by the time I walked home from school with it, I had flipped it several more times. Anyhow, i’m pleased to say I have mastered this cake now, and it is simply delicious with minimal ingredients. Give it a go and let me know how you get on!

First thing to do is find a tin that your pineapple rings will fit into snuggly. You’ll probably get 4 rings in, like in the video. Grease your baking tin on the sides and the bottom and then sprinkle with a little sugar. This should help caramelise the tops of the cake when flipping. If you want to get a caramel effect on the pineapple slices, drain them fully before sitting in the pan or use a chefs blowtorch at the end when the cake is done.
Sit the pineapple rings into the cake tin and then slot the cherries in between the rings and gaps. Put to one side.

Make the batter by sieving all of the dry ingredients together into a bowl, then adding in the eggs, butter & pineapple juice. Beat well to get any lumps out until a smooth batter is formed. Sometimes it’s nice to use vanilla extract instead but the pineapple juice flavour from the tin adds to the pineapple effect overall.
Carefully pour the batter over the pineapple and cherries so that they do not move out of place. Smooth out and level off before putting in the oven to bake at 180c or equivalent see oven temperature conversion chart for 25-30 mins, the top should be well browned and a skewer should come out clean.

Let cool for 5 minutes before flipping out onto a wire rack. Tap the top of the tin like a sandcastle and gently lift off the tin to reveal the pineapple and cherry tops!

Serve slices with cream, custard or ice-cream. Lovely stuff!

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