Pineapple Upside Down Cake

As I was drinking my second milky coffee in the kitchen this morning, I found myself staring at the fruit bowl. Both pears were definitely looking the worse for wear, one lemon had white powdery mould on it (straight in the bin!) and my centrepiece pineapple, was frankly looking rather tatty. Which is how I came to make a Pineapple Upside Down Cake this afternoon. It was supposed to look like this: 

As I only had a small cake tin, fresh (rather than tinned) pineapple, and muscovado sugar (rather than light soft brown) mine looked like this:

But, hey, it might have been the Ugly Sister but it still tasted fabulous!

 

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients
For the topping
50g softened butter
50g light soft brown sugar
Fresh pineapple, cubed (about a half of one whole pineapple)
Glacé cherries (I used black cherries in Kirsch out of a jar)
For the cake
100g softened butter
100g golden caster sugar
100g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 egg
2 tbspn milk

How to prepare
Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. For the topping, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy. Spread over the base of a 20cm round cake tin. If it has a detachable base, you might like to line the tin with baking paper. I didn’t and some of the lovely caramel leaked out. Arrange pineapple on top, then place lots of cherries in the gaps.

Place the cake ingredients in a bowl and, using an electric whisk, beat to a soft consistency. Spoon into the tin on top of the pineapple and smooth it out so it’s level. Bake for 35 mins. Leave to stand for 5 mins, then turn out onto a plate. Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream or some vanilla custard.