I've been baking quite a lot over the last few weeks. For one thing, barely going out means that I need to keep a supply of potential snack food on hand. For another, it is a very soothing activity and makes me feel very content in a sort of 1950s hausfrau sort of a way. Also (and this is particularly pertinent to this post) we have been getting all sorts of random fruit and veg in our weekly box which we wouldn't normally buy and baking is a good way to make sure everything gets utilised.
I read through quite a few recipes before settling on this one, which originates from the BBC Good Food site. The method, of smearing the butter and sugar mixture all over the bottom of the cake tin rather than melting it down into a caramel, seemed to me to be pleasingly faff free and it worked a treat. When you look at the ingredients list, the scant amount of sponge mix might seem like an error but I think it produces an excellent ratio of fruit and caramel to cake.
Treat this recipe as a blueprint to pull out whenever you have some random soft fruit that you need to use (perhaps in your weekly box, or a tin lurking at the back of the store cupboard). I had great success with making an upside-down plum cake the other week (in fact, D preferred the plum version to it's pineapple cousin). Inspired by that, and again in the quest for the perfect distribution and ratio, I would encourage you to imagine a plum cut into eighths when slicing your fruit. When I made the version in the picture, my pineapple chunks were a bit...chunky.
Incidentally (and I'll stop whiffling and get to the recipe in a second) I make this in my silicon cake tin and it works like a charm. I am slightly obsessed, I won't deny it, even if it does fly in the face of tradition somewhat and means that I run the risk of losing my 1950s hausfrau badge.
Ingredients
50g light, soft brown sugar
50g softened butter
Tsp ground cinnamon
250g pineapple, cut into smallish chunks (see note above)
100g softened butter
100g caster sugar (golden if you happen to have it)
100g self raising flour
Tsp baking powder
Tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
Preheat the oven to 180 (160 fan).
Combine the 50g butter with the 50g sugar and the cinnamon until it reaches the texture of very damp sand. Spread this across the bottom of a 20cm cake tin and about a quarter of the way up the sides (you don't have to be too precise here). By far the easiest way to do this is with your hands. Pretend you're making sandcastles.
Arrange the fruit across the caramel mixture. Aim for as even a distribution as possible.
Now for the cake. Cream together the rest of the butter and the sugar until pale and fluffy. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one, and stir through the vanilla extract. Finally, sift in the flour and the baking powder and gently fold through so that you have a soft, smooth batter.
You now need to spread the cake mix on top of the fruit. It may look like there isn't enough, so spend a bit of time, preferably using a silicon spatula, to make sure the mixture is evenly spread.
Bake in the oven for 25-35 mins (my oven is a beast so I start checking after 20). The cake is ready when a skewer (or a small piece of dried spaghetti, my weapon of choice) comes out clean.
Leave the cake to cool for 5 minutes and then you need to turn it out onto a plate. This is less scary than it sounds. Place your hand flat under the cake tin (use an oven glove if it is still too hot to handle at this stage) and cover the exposed cake layer with a large plate then turn over in one swift, smooth movement. Believe me, I am the clumsiest person in the world and I have managed several times without incident.
This cake is lovely warmed, with cream or ice cream for a school dinners-tastic pudding, but cold with a cup of tea is good too. Whatever floats your boat.
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