Pineapple Sunshine Cake

Pineapple Sunshine Cake

This is the recipe from The February Garden, after receiving quite a few requests for the details of how to make our “little bit of sunshine” cake. It was inspired by Good Food Magazine’s instructions for a Retro Upside Down Cake, but altered for what was in our pantry at the time, and made child-friendly with a lack of rum and sticky topping. This version takes less time and can be cut into portable squares for picnics.

Ingredients:

Stage 1: The Pineapple Base

50g unsalted butter, softened (extra for greasing the tin)

50g light brown soft sugar

8 canned pineapple rings, in syrup (Tip: If you want an easy topping, reserve the syrup and pour it over the warm cake.)

Approx 10 glace or maraschino cherries

Stage 2: The Sponge Mix

150g unsalted butter, softened

150g golden caster sugar

150g self-raising flour

50g desiccated coconut (extra to decorate)

Zest of four limes (save some to decorate)

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 large eggs

Equipment:

Baking tin (approx 20cm x 20cm)

Baking parchment

Kitchen Mixer

Spatular

Knife, for slicing cake into squares

Method:

• Set the oven to 180c/160c fan.
• Butter and line the cake tin.
• Beat the 50g of butter with the brown sugar.
• Spread the butter and sugar paste over the base and sides of the cake tin liner.
• Arrange the pineapples over the base, with a cherry placed in each centre and gap.

• For the sponge, tip the butter, sugar, flour, desiccated coconut, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, the lime zest (saving a tiny bit back) and eggs into a large bowl.
• Beat in an electric mixer until smooth and creamy.
• Spoon batter over pineapple and level with a spatular.

• Bake for 35-40 mins.
• Leave to cool – it won’t look pretty just yet…
• Once cooled, turn out, upside down, onto a cutting board to reveal the pineapple decoration as the top of the cake. Ta-dah!

• Decorate with the set-aside desiccated coconut and lime zest.
• Cut into squares, if desired.