Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I am really happy these days, I have got new tools for cake decorating (check www.bakefresh.net if you happen to be in Riyadh) and two new books I have eyeing for so long. The Cake Bible and Martha's Baking Handbook. I will try recipes from these amazing books and will share on this blog.BTW if you happen to be a serious baker, these two books are must have. 

I meant to write this post when I actually made this cake for couple of friends who were invited over afternoon tea. I also made this cake to utilize my cake tin that comes especially for this cake. My mother had this pan for a long time. It was after I started this blog and reading different blogs, came to know that this is not only a design rather it was made to place pineapple rings and cherries. When my mother visited me last year, she thoughtfully brought that pan for me. 

This is a beautiful cake, the caramelized brown sugar sitting on top of tender pineapple rings and splash of red cherries, underneath is a soft butter cake flavored with pineapple juice. A true comfort. Its a very impressive cake as well given the little effort put in, just make sure you are careful with the oven temperature as brown sugar can easily burn which can spoil the entire cake. The recipe comes from the baking classes I used to take when I was in school. Although I searched for some recipes before trying this one but decided to stick to this recipe atleast for now.

Ingredients:

For base:

Butter 2 oz/2 tbsp

Brown sugar 2oz/4tbsp

Pineapple slices (rings and not pieces)

Cherries

For cake:

Butter 6 oz/6tbsp

Caster sugar 6 oz/12tbsp

Flour 6 oz/12tbsp

Baking powder 1 1/2 tsp

Eggs 3

Pineapple essence 1/2 tsp

Yellow color few drops

Pineapple syrup/juice 1/4 cup

Method for base:

Put butter in 8x4 rectangular tin or pineapple upside down tin. Spread it on all sides of the tin with the help of a spoon or knife lavishly (For me washed hands work best). Sprinkle brown sugar on all the sides. Put pineapple rings on the bottom of the pan and halved pineapple slices on the sides so that they stick to the butter and brown sugar. Put cherries in each hole of the pineapple rings.

For cake:

Preheat oven at No4. Sift flour and baking powder. Beat butter, caster sugar and essence till light and fluffy. Add very few drops of color. Add 1 egg and 1 tbsp of the dry mixture and beat. Continue till all eggs have been added. In the end add the pineapple syrup along with the remaining flour mixture. Mix lightly and pour on the prepared base. Level properly and bake for 50 mins at No4. Invert it when it is done and cooled.