By Kimberly Ramkhalawan
If your dad is anything like mine, one that has a sweet tooth and savours in the simplicity of having cake and ice cream served to him after any meal, you are guaranteed to make pops smile this Fathers’ Day with this recipe.
I have been making Pineapple Upside down cake since I was 13, it was a recipe that was taught to us in Home Economics and it was a perfect one so much as a teen I got requests for it from my aunts and their friends, placing orders on long weekends or school vacation periods to serve to their gatherings. It was a cool way to earn some extra cash back then, not to mention, hearing the ooo’s and the aah’s did stroke my baking ego somewhat.
No, I am not tooting my own horn here, but simply saying how good it was.
I must admit, the secret is to how well you ensure that butter and sugar is creamed into fluffy existence, something any good food and nutrition teacher would have taught you back in school as the ‘creaming method’, as well as advice picked up from watching the connoisseurs of baking like my neighbour, a mature lady who had a good hand in the kitchen, and my elder aunts who guarded their cake recipes like a hawk, taking them to the grave even.
Cake baking requires patience, and love. Take your time whipping that batter in one direction clockwise and trust the oven to do its thing within the required time.
PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN CAKE
Ingredients:
6 oz Butter
3 Eggs (Room temp.)
2 tsp baking powder
½ cup milk or ½ cup pineapple juice
Pineapple slices
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 cups bakers’ flour
8 Maraschino cherries
½ tsp vanilla essence
METHOD:
Preheat oven at 375F. Prepare cake tin by lining it with grease proof paper. Sprinkle the 2 tbsp of brown sugar on base. Place pineapple slices and cherries halved over the sugar. Set aside cake tin.
Sift dry ingredients including the flour and the baking powder. Ensure the baking powder is incorporated well with the flour. In a separate bowl, combine butter and the sugar, then cream using hand or stand mixer until the sugar has melted with the butter and has formed fluffy peaks. Include the eggs one by one. Add ½ cup of flour mixture to creamed butter at a time. After one cup of flour has been incorporated into the butter mixture, add ¼ cup of liquid and mix. Repeat this once again, and be sure to add your vanilla essence.
Tap the bowl gently on the counter to get any air bubbles out of mixture. Now pour into prepared tin and bake for 30 -45 mins until skewer is tested and comes out clean, and while top of cake has gotten golden colour.
Allow the cake to cool on a rack for 10mins. Using a butter knife or spatula, run it around the edges of the cake and invert unto a serving plate. Slice and serve.
Happy Fathers’ Day to all the dads out there, especially the ones who will also enjoy this cake.
Send your recipes to: islandcuisine@caribmagplus.com