Pineapple upside-down cake

December 24, 2021

   

I've been lucky to have my mum visiting from Queensland over the past month. She doesn't eat chocolate, so I planned a couple of cocoa-free treats to share while she's around. This pineapple cake was a recipe that came to mind, perhaps nudged to the surface by the pineapple mocktails we recently enjoyed. My past encounter with this cake was at a picnic celebrating our friend Erin's birthday about a year ago. Thankfully the recipe was easy to find online, as I knew it was created by long-time favourite Helen Goh.

On that first occasion I especially enjoyed the combination of fennel seeds and pineapple, but the fennel flavour got a bit lost in my cake. I may have ground the seeds up too finely (I used the spice grinder attachment on our food processor), but I'd also be game to double the quantity if I made the cake again. I also made some minor missteps in cutting the pineapple, such that I found myself tessellating arrow-shaped pieces and filling gaps with small triangles of pineapple. The cake baked just find in this configuration, but I suppose slicing it was a little more delicate. If I'd sliced my pineapple into neat rectangular batons as intended, it would be an easy one piece per cake slice. 

The cake was ready for afternoon tea just as Mum and her sister Carol arrived. It was gorgeously soft and warm, fragrant with orange rind, with caramelly brown sugar dripping off the pineapple. A day later, I popped the second half of the cake in a switched-off but still-warm oven while we went for a walk after Christmas lunch. We were rewarded with that just-baked cake experience all over again.

   

Pineapple upside-down cake

(a recipe by Helen Goh, posted on good food)

pineapple topping

80g brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 medium pineapple

cake batter

180g plain flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

100g butter, at room temperature

80g caster sugar

40g brown sugar

zest of 1 orange

2 eggs

150g sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat an oven to 175°C. Line a loaf tin with baking paper and spray it with oil. 

In a shallow bowl, stir together the sugar, fennel seeds and salt for the topping. Slice the bottom and top off the pineapple and stand it on one of these cut ends. Carefully remove the peel by slicing downwards around the pineapple, then tidy up any remaining peel, 'eyes' and rough bits using a small knife. Slice the pineapple in half vertically, and then lengthways into 2cm-thick rectangles (I think I mistakenly did this widthways). Trim away the core from each piece. Cut the rectangles into lengths that will fit the width of the loaf tin, and when you have enough to cover the tin base, you can keep the leftover pineapple to eat later. Roll the pineapple rectangles into the sugar mixture and set them out in the bottom of the loaf tin. Sprinkle any remaining sugar mixture over the top.

For the cake batter, sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a small bowl and set them aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugars together until fluffy. Add the orange zest, and beat in the eggs one at a time. Gradually beat in the flour mixture and sour cream in turns, then the finally the vanilla. Pour the batter into the loaf tin and smooth over the top. Bake the cake for 45-50 minutes, until it passes the skewer test. Allow it to cool for at least 15 minutes before upending the cake onto a serving plate, pineapple on the top.