Pineapple and ginger upside-down cake recipe
Upside-down cakes are a perfect way to bring fruit and cake together without making separate components. The way the fruit softens and caramelises and then mixes with the cake batter, which absorbs its sweet juices, is just perfection. And it looks so gorgeous.
The best part is, this cake could be adapted to any fruit really: plums, nectarines, peaches, apricots, strawberries, blueberries, or, in this case pineapple. The ginger adds a spicy note that works well with the pineapple, but it doesn’t overpower.
Tip: you must start with ripe fruit. Yes, the sugar and the cooking of the fruit will improve things, but if you want this to be a fabulous cake as opposed to an alright cake, make sure the fruit is fabulous to start with.
Ingredients
For the topping- 25 g butter
- 80 g brown sugar
- 0.5 pineapple, peeled, cored, sliced and cut into pieces
- 225 g soft butter, plus extra for greasing
- 200 g caster (superfine) sugar
- 4 eggs, separated
- 20 g grated fresh ginger
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 220 g plain (all-purpose) flour
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 2.2 tsp baking powder
- 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 100 ml whole (full-cream) milk
Details
- Cuisine: American
- Recipe Type: Cake
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 15 mins
- Cooking Time: 65 mins
- Serves: 8
Step-by-step
- Grease and line a round 22–25cm (8.5–10in) round cake tin with baking paper.
- Start by making the topping. Melt the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan until the sugar crystals have melted and the mix is bubbling. Simmer for 1 minute, then pour this molten mix into the prepared tin.
- Arrange the pineapple pieces on top of this caramel in any pattern you like. Try to cover as much surface area as possible so you can have a lot of fruit in each slice.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
- Cream together the butter and sugar in a freestanding electric mixer until light and fluffy, then add the egg yolks, ginger and vanilla and mix until well incorporated. Separately, whip the egg whites in a clean bowl, either by hand or with an electric whisk, until soft peaks form. Set aside.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk them together. Add half the dry ingredients to the butter and gently mix, then, with the machine still running, add all the milk and mix. Carefully add the remaining dry ingredients and finish mixing with a spatula. Fold in the whipped egg whites.
- Pour this on top of the pineapple in the tin and spread it out evenly. Gently tap the tin on your work surface to ensure the cake batter has dropped into place.
- Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Allow to cool slightly before flipping the cake out. To flip it over, place a flat plate or cake tray on top of the tin, then, holding the plate in place with your hand, flip the cake over quickly and carefully. Once flipped, simply pull the tin off and peel back the baking paper. Serve warm or when completely cooled.
This recipe is from Always Add Lemon by Danielle Alvarez, (Hardie Grant, £26.61). Photography: © Benito Martin and Jess Johnson.
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