Spring

Upside Down Pineapple Cake

by:
February  2, 2018
5
2 Ratings
Upside Down Pineapple Cake
Photo by Liliana
  • Serves 8 - 10
Author Notes

Forget those old fashioned upside down cakes using tinned pineapple and glace cherries. This version uses fresh pineapple, and the coconut flavour of the cake, perfumed with orange makes this fresh and light that’s perfect any time of the day.
I love buying fresh pineapple and letting it sit out on the kitchen bench for a few days so it gets ripe and juicy. You can actually smell the aroma as you walk in the room. That’s when you know it’s at it’s best. Pineapple is so good for you, full of vitamin C, manganese (good for your joints, bones and your brain), fibre and low in fat. It’s perfect in a fruit salad, fruit kebabs and is a great addition to a smoothy (add it to kale to get the incredible goodness of kale into a sweet delicious drink). But enough with the healthy stuff, let’s make cake! —Liliana

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 125 grams butter, room temperature, diced
  • 180 grams sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 300 milliliters thickened cream
  • 260 grams self raising flour
  • 100 grams dessicated coconut
  • 2 tablespoons finely grated orange rind
  • 1/2 fresh pineapple, peeled and cut into fine slices
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 180 C (160 C fan forced).
  2. Mix the butter, sugar and vanilla extract together in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well to incorporate each egg.
  3. Add the cream and mix until smooth
  4. Fold through the flour, coconut and rind and mix to form a smooth batter.
  5. Line a 20cm round cake tin with baking paper. Sprinkle the base with brown sugar and lay the pineapple evenly. Top with batter and smooth. Cook for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
  6. Allow to cool for 20 mintes before inverting. Peel the baking paper from the top of the cake and allow to cool before serving.
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  • Liliana
    Liliana
  • Alison
    Alison
Liliana
I am an author, cook, traveller and proud Mama of two boys. I have published three books - 'Easy Home Cooking Italian Style', 'Food for Sharing Italian Style', and 'The Sweet Life - Easy Home Baking and Sweet Treats.' My books reflect my Italian heritage. I also write fiction and feature articles.

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6 Reviews

Liliana
Liliana April 1, 2018
Hi. Thanks for your feedback and glad you enjoyed it.
 
Liliana
Liliana March 30, 2018
Hi. Im sorry, this has happened a few times to me. A glitch I will contact food52 about. Thanks for pointing out, ill fix it asap. Yes the rind amd flour are folded through the batter. For the sugar and pineapple all you do is line the base of your cake tin with baking paper then evenly sprinkle the brown sugar in, top with pineapple, no need to caramelize as it does this itself while baking. Then pour batter on top. Good luck
 
Alison
Alison March 30, 2018
couple of questions--by "thickened cream" do you mean heavy cream, or whipping cream, as is sold in the US? and is the coconut sweetened or unsweetened? thanks! recipe looks perfect for what I would like to make....
 
Liliana
Liliana March 30, 2018
Hi Alison. Thanks for your message. Either would work but I'd go with heavy cream. Same with the coconut, but I'd use sweetened as preference. Good luck
 
Alison
Alison March 30, 2018
oops--I just realized that there are some steps missing in the instructions. Do you caramelize the brown sugar and pineapple and place on the bottom of the cake pan? I assume the orange rind and flour go into the batter. I wish I had seen this earlier! thank you for responding to my original question so promptly.
 
Alison
Alison March 31, 2018
Liliana, this is delicious! I appreciate you getting the instructions uploaded so quickly, as well as your other responses. The cake is easy to make, and I love the fragrance of the orange rind combined with the coconut, which makes this a little different than the other recipes I saw. I did use the heavy cream (for US bakers), as well as unsweetened coconut (turns out that is what I had in the pantry)--I liked the richness of the cake, and think the sweetened coconut could have made it too sweet for my tastes, when combined with the fruit topping, but that maybe mainly a matter of preference. The fruit was nicely caramelized in the pan without having to do that step separately, which was convenient. As to the baking itself, I needed to leave it in for a full hour--I live in Denver, and with the high altitude, baking can take longer. My only difficulty came with the baking pan: I used a 9-inch layer cake pan, but in retrospect should have used a spring-form pan. The batter was a little too much in volume for my pan, and wound up covering the rims of the pan and sticking there, which made it hard to invert the cake until I used a knife to cut through those edges. Not as beautiful as I would have hoped, but this was for a family dinner, so not that big a deal.. :-) I will make it the other way next time, and I am sure there will be a next time, it was sooooo good. thanks very much!