Caramelised Fresh Pineapple Upside Down Cake

On a cloudy, wet summer's day, I was feeling forlorn and fed-up. I spied a fresh pineapple in the corner of my kitchen, a day or two past it's best-by date. I conjured up a plan, a sunshine plan. I decided to create and bake a cake. Here's the recipe I developed that should bring a ray of sunshine to any kitchen on a grey day.

Ingredients

Caramel

1/2 medium fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and sliced into rings (about 1cm thick)

90 g butter

125 g light brown sugar

Cake

170 g butter

150 g caster sugar

Pinch salt

160 g SR flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

125ml milk
2 eggs

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180 C/160C fan

Grease a 20cm cake tin or tarte tartin tin with butter (bottom and sides). Cut pineapple rings into quarters. Melt 90g butter and the light brown sugar in a heavy based saucepan. Simmer over a medium heat stirring constantly for about 4 minutes to make the caramel. Pour evenly over the base of the cake tin. Place the pineapple quarters in a circular pattern on the base of the tin, covering the base. Set aside.

Next cream the butter and caster sugar with an electric beater until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until fully combined. Add the vanilla bean paste.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add portions of the flour and the milk in small additions slowly to the mix, beating slowly until combined. The mixture may curdle slightly, if so add a little more flour.

Once combined, pour the mixture over the caramelised pineapple. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. It’s done when a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the tin for about 5-10 minutes. Place an upturned plate on top of the tin, invert carefully onto the plate. Replace any pineapple that has become stuck on the tin. Cool on the plate on a cake cooler.

Serve warm or at room temperature.