Pineapple Upside Down Cake
by Nigella. Featured in NIGELLA EXPRESSIntroduction
This is a bit before my time, but I have vague nursery memories of a friend of my grandmother's making a version of this, which she would serve with a warm sauce made of pineapple juice thickened with - I imagine - cornflour. That I can do without, but I am still of the mind that it is perfectly all right to make this with canned pineapple rings. I feel it is slightly bad sport to start peeling and slicing your own pineapple.
Anyway, canned pineapple is just fine, though I advise going for the one in its own juice rather than in syrup, and I add some of the juice to the sponge, too. This seems to make it light and fluffy.
This is a bit before my time, but I have vague nursery memories of a friend of my grandmother's making a version of this, which she would serve with a warm sauce made of pineapple juice thickened with - I imagine - cornflour. That I can do without, but I am still of the mind that it is perfectly all right to make this with canned pineapple rings. I feel it is slightly bad sport to start peeling and slicing your own pineapple.
Anyway, canned pineapple is just fine, though I advise going for the one in its own juice rather than in syrup, and I add some of the juice to the sponge, too. This seems to make it light and fluffy.
Ingredients
Serves: 8
- butter (for greasing)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 6 slices canned pineapple in juice (plus 3 tablespoons of the juice)
- 11 glace cherries (approx. 75g total weight)
- 100 grams plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 100 grams soft butter
- 100 grams caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- butter (for greasing)
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 6 slices canned pineapple in juice (plus 3 tablespoons of the juice)
- 11 candied cherries (approx. 75g total weight)
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 stick soft butter
- ½ cup superfine sugar
- 2 large eggs
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/gas mark 6/400ºF. Butter a tarte Tatin tin (24cm/9 inches wide at the top and 20cm/8 inches diameter at the bottom) or use a 23cm / 8-9 inch cake tin (neither loose-bottomed nor springform).
- Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar on top of the buttered base, and then arrange the pineapple slices to make a circular pattern as in the picture.
- Fill each pineapple ring with a glace cherry, and then dot one in each of the spaces in between.
- Put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, butter, caster sugar and eggs into a food processor and run the motor until the batter is smooth. Then pour in the 3 tablespoons of pineapple juice to thin it a little.
- Pour this mixture carefully over the cherry-studded pineapple rings; it will only just cover it, so spread it out gently.
- Bake for 30 minutes, then ease a spatula around the edge of the tin, place a plate on top and, with one deft - ha! - move, turn it upside-down.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/gas mark 6/400ºF. Butter a tarte Tatin tin (24cm/9 inches wide at the top and 20cm/8 inches diameter at the bottom) or use a 23cm / 8-9 inch cake tin (neither loose-bottomed nor springform).
- Sprinkle the 2 tablespoons of sugar on top of the buttered base, and then arrange the pineapple slices to make a circular pattern as in the picture.
- Fill each pineapple ring with a glace cherry, and then dot one in each of the spaces in between.
- Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, butter, superfine sugar and eggs into a food processor and run the motor until the batter is smooth. Then pour in the 3 tablespoons of pineapple juice to thin it a little.
- Pour this mixture carefully over the cherry-studded pineapple rings; it will only just cover it, so spread it out gently.
- Bake for 30 minutes, then ease a spatula around the edge of the tin, place a plate on top and, with one deft - ha! - move, turn it upside-down.
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Show more commentsHere in the USA we use brown sugar on the buttered base. It gives a very rich topping and balances the delicate cake well.
Congrats for the easy and tasty recipe. I used light brown sugar on the bottom and it was delicious.
I made this day today and cooked it at 180 oven (Fan) for 30 mins. Did not have the size pan quoted in the recipe, so had to adjust half the measurements of the ingredients to fit my baking dish. So far, its turned out perfect!
I made this tonight and had fun turning it on to the plate ! The pineapple top end looked perfect but the bottom was a very dark crusty looking brown. I'm putting this down to my fan oven at 180 8C versus time 40 mins. I will make this again with adjusted time and temp. Any ideas folks?
I make my pineapple cake like this. My sauce recipe that came with my recipe for a bridal shower 48 years ago, used the rest of the pineapple juice and 1 T of corn STARCH.
Bought a tin of sliced oranges by accident and had no idea what to do with them, so substituted them for the pineapple here, added a bit of orange liqueur to the juice that goes into the cake batter and sprinkled flaked almonds over the oranges when they were in the baking tin. Definitely needed a slightly lower temp than here for my fan oven as the top looked like it was going to burn just 10 mins into cooking time. I reduced it to 170 and kept a close eye on it. Also mistakenly used a spring form loose bottom cake tiin, only lost a tiny bit of cake mix though! Pretty happy with the result anyway, lovely cake mix :-)
I had my oven on 160 degrees and left it in for 20 minutes and it was black! Bloody hate my oven... Cut the top of those and still looks alright and tastes OK! Live and learn.
Despite my awful oven, my cake turned out very nicely! Lovely light cake, I'll definitely make it again.
I made this last weekend for the first time, it turned out beautifully, my family are coming next weekend so I will have a new desert to give them.
We so love making and eating this cake. Thank you so much. X
Cake turned out to be great, will definitely make it again but next time probably without cherries as they make the cake a bit to sweet. Thanks Nigella!
Not usually into cooking but wanting to try something, I chose this as my first attempt. Followed recipe to the letter, well just about, had to guess weighs as I don't have scales. My Mum always did it that way. It turned out fantastic, lovely flavour and very moist. I tried it on my friend and her 3 sons and there wasn't any left after 10 minutes. So a very successful first attempt on my part and am now looking for another recipe to try and as I have some stale bread I'm looking at Bread and Butter pudding :-)