I got a little ambitious the other week with some almost-too-ripe pineapple and the good deal of baking things we have amassed over the months we've been living without hungry mouths to feed (aka, no more twenty-something guys hanging out at our house begging us to bake things). I'd never made an upside-down cake and Oh, Ladycakes made it look like too much fun to pass up. I'm forever in awe of her recipes: how simply put yet how carefully measured and planned. Just follow her. Forget my blog when it comes to food, just go see hers. The only differences I talk about are the fact that I can't find half the ingredients and have to worry about the tiny-ness of my oven. Moving on...
This cake, though made due to the necessity of keeping the pineapple from going bad (the rest of which made a few delicious popsicles), was the perfect goodbye to summer. Since this recipe Katie and I have made several fall treats and hopefully some good enough to make it up here before the (short) season is over. For a first try, I'd say it turned out pretty well! Here's how I did it in Thailand.
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons coconut oil
- About 2 cups of pineapple slices
- Triple-berry preserves
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
- 3/4 teaspoons almond extract
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup pineapple juice
Preheat oven 350º degrees.
Finding fresh raspberries in SEA in the summer is pretty much impossible. And even though strawberries were my second choice, I didn't feel like forking over $9 for one little package. So I went to the jam aisle and grabbed a little jar of triple-berry preserves and used those instead. Unsure how they would bake in this cake, I'm happy to say that they worked just fine and gave a pretty good kick in the middle of all that pineapple.
I cut thin slices of the fruit chunks we had left over, laid a silicone mat in the only pan we have for baking (around 9x13, but you can use any size, the only difference will be your cake's thickness), and after greasing the pan with the coconut oil, I sprinkled in the brown sugar and laid the pineapple in, filling any little gaps with a spoonful of the jam.
Setting the pan aside, I made the batter. Mixing some of the dry ingredients first I combined the flour, salt, baking powder and soda. After this I got a separate bowl to combine the corn starch and the sugar, mixing the coconut oil in with it until it's all mixed and slushy-looking. Add the almond extract, eggs and pineapple juice and keep mixing. Take two thirds of the dry mixture and combine it with the wet ingredients. Then use a spatula to stir in the remaining third. Once well combined, pour the batter over the pineapple in the pan (make sure you tap it on the counter a couple times so it can get all the way to the bottom and between the fruit).
Bake at 350º for about 38 minutes give or take a few, then remove from the oven and cover with a towel for another 20 minutes to keep the steam in. Flip your cake over onto a wire rack and transfer to another plate if you wish after an hour.
Usually you'll store this baby at room temperature for two days, but I kept mine for three via the refrigerator. The folks who helped me eat it on Thursday night say it tasted great, but it was definitely best the afternoon I pulled it out of the oven. Bye, Summer, you were great.
