Erm, well, I’m about to have a heart attack at this very moment. So I decided to work on this blog post. The thing is, I am not about to have a heart attack because of pineapples.

 

 

I had so many things about pineapples to write in this recipe’s blog post, but I am just 100% focused on elections in Turkey right now… and it is too exciting! But ok, I’ll try to shift the focus on pineapple now.

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, a very dear friend of mine had a operation. She was given pineapples in the hospital to eat and then we also bought pineapples for her when we took her back home. At that moment I realised that I never did anything with pineapples before. Not only that, but I don’t really eat pineapples at all, I barely remember them when I pass by the fruit section in the market. So I immediately started to work on it and this cake came out as the result.

 

 

I did upside down cakes a few times before – with oranges, apples and pears. But I think the best result came out with pineapple. In this version I halved each slice and arranged them like this. However, in another time I made it, I kept the slices as a whole and put a cherries in the middle of each slice, and it was equally beautiful, so feel free to arrange however you like!

 

 

Apart from the fresh and moist taste coming from pineapples, there is a lovely dense banana smell as well, which creates a great combination. The cake is delicious when it is freshly made, but it is also very delicious the next day. So if you don’t have time, you can make the cake the day before and keep it an airtight container until you serve it. Enjoy!
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Ingredients:

 

Difficulty: Easy
(makes 1 cake in 22cm cake pan)

 

Printable PDF-recipe (no photos)

 

1/2 dl + 2 tbsp (or 1/3 cup) coconut coffee cream / coconut drink (or soy milk)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2.5 dl all-purpose flour
4 tbsp corn flour (NOT corn starch! In Finnish: maissijauho)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar
a pinch of salt
5 tbsp canola oil, plus a little more to grease the pan (or another light vegetable oil)
1 tbsp pineapple juice
2 tbsp brown sugar
10-11 pineapple slices, halved
1 small very ripe banana, mashed (my banana was about 160 gr)
1 dl + 5 tsp (or 1/2 cup) granulated white sugar

 

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1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 22cm cake pan (I used springform) with canola oil and cover the base with a baking paper. I put the baking in between two parts of springform pan as seen in the photo, as a rather big piece in case a bit of caramel leaks out while baking (which, it did!).

 

 

2. In a small bowl, put apple cider vinegar and coconut coffee cream (or soy milk) and whisk a little. Put aside to let it curdle.

 

 

 

 

3. Put the dry ingredients (in the ingredients list above, from all-purpose flour to salt) in a bowl and mix.

 

 

 

4. Take 1 tbsp from the canola oil and put it in a small saucepan together with pineapple juice and brown sugar. Whisk and put on medium heat. Let it boil while continuing to whisk and cook for 1 more minute after boiling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Pour caramelised sugar mixture into the prepared cake pan and let it spread on the whole base.

 

 

 

6. Arrange the pineapple slices on caramelised cake pan base. Put aside.

 

 

 

7. In a mixing bowl, put remaining oil, mashed banana and granulated white sugar and whisk well.

 

 

 

 

 

8. Add curdled vinegar mixture and whisk well again.

 

 

 

9. Add dry ingredients mixture and fold just until the ingredients are incorporated.

 

 

 

10. Pour the batter (it will be quite thick) on the cake pan with pineapples. Smoothen the surface with a spatula if needed. Put in the oven, in medium rack and bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. When ready, take out of the oven and let it cool in the pan for about 1 hour. After that, carefully take it out of the pan and transfer to a serving dish turning it from its upside down position. Enjoy with fresh tea or coffee! Yumm!