SLIDER

pineapple and ginger upside down cake



Growing up, upside down pineapple cakes involved rings of tinned pineapple filled with red glacé cherries. I didn't think the cake looked very appealling, so I've never had a slice before. While sorting through some of my old food magazines I came across this Donna Hay magazine recipe for a pineapple and ginger upside down cake which used fresh pineapple. 



I liked the sound of that so I bought a pineapple at the fruit shop then played around a bit with the recipe upping the quantity of the butter, eggs and the pineapple. I ran out of syrup to pour over the cake, so I've also increased the quantity of the pineapple and ginger syrup.




The cake rose a bit too high so I trimmed the top of the cake and ate the still warm from the oven trimmings. The trimmings were delicious so this would make a lovely dessert, served warm from the oven.



Here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to make a 23 cm cake, just double the ingredients but the baking time will stay the same.



Pineapple and Ginger Upside Down Cake, adapted from Donna Hay Magazine, issue 73. Serves 6

Ingredients
110 g unsalted butter, softened
⅔ cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
2 tsp ground ginger
¾ tsp baking powder
pinch salt
¼ cup almond meal
¼ cup buttermilk

Pineapple syrup
450 g pineapple (approx ½ pineapple) cored and thinly sliced lengthways.
½ cup caster sugar
1½ cups water
4 cm piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced.

Method
To make the pineapple syrup, place the pineapple, sugar, water and ginger in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the pineapple for 10 minutes or until its tender. Carefully remove the pineapple slices and set aside to cool slightly. Return the syrup to the heat and cook for 6-8 minutes or until thickened slightly. Remove the ginger and discard then set the syrup aside.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease a 17 cm cake tin and line the base and sides with baking paper. If you use a springform pan, you'll need to seal the exterior of the tin with some aluminium foil to stop the syrup from leaking. Layer the pineapple slices over the base and pour over just enough of the syrup to cover the pineapple, reserving and setting aside the remaining syrup. Finely chop the remaining pineapple to make ¼ cup.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well in between each addition, until well combined. Sift the flour, baking powder and ginger into a bowl. Add the ground almonds and stir to combine. Add half the flour mixture to the cake batter. When combined add the remaining flour mixture and enough buttermilk to make a soft batter then fold the chopped pineapple into the cake batter.

Carefully spread the cake mixture over the top of the pineapple and smooth the top. Bake for approximately 1 hour or until just cooked when tested. If the cake is browning too much, cover the top with a piece of baking paper. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a cooling rack for about 20 minutes.

While the cake is cooling, return the reserved syrup to a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until thickened. Invert the cake onto a platter (trim the base level if necessary) and carefully remove the tin and baking paper. Serve the cake with the hot syrup and cream if desired.



See you all again next week.

Bye for now,

Jillian
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