Microwave upside down pineapple cake

Microwave upside down pineapple cake

I thought it would be good idea to add some pineapple slices to my Slowcooker barbecued pork recipe but when I went to buy the pineapple I ran into a bit of a problem. I usually buy small tins of pineapple chunks but for this dish I needed four slices. Tins of pineapple aren't sold by the number of slices but overall weight. I wasn't sure if a small tin contained three or four and since two small tins were more expensive than one big tin I went for the big tin. When I opened this tin it contained of course eight slices of pineapple. What would I do with another four slices?

This month the AlphaBakes challenge, hosted by Ros at The more than occasional baker and Caroline at Caroline Makes..., has reached its final letter of 'U'. So there was only one answer for the pineapple slices – bake them into a cake and an upside down at that. Now, I expect Ros and Caroline have been inundated with upside down cakes this month but I have a little twist to it...

The first time I tried a pineapple upside cake was last year at a Clandestine Cake Club meeting. My daughter liked it so much that by the end of the meeting there was only crumbs left on the plate. I did make one myself for a Sunday tea but never got round to making it again. It's really quite a simple bake but I was surprised that it takes about an hour to cook in the oven. Since I already had a Yorkshire Hotpot in the oven (very similar to a Lancashire Hotpot...) I didn't have time to bake one in that oven. Cue – my microwave oven. The day before I had bought a silicone baking dish (£2.25 in Morrisons if you're asking) which was begging to be tried out. I was a bit dubious about but it worked and was very easy to release. Hurrah for silicone bakeware! And I never thought I would say that.

Since I used up the pineapple I am sending this to Elizabeth of Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary, No Waste Food Challenge. This month it is being hosted by Chris from Cooking Around The World.

As the microwave speeds up the cooking process so much I am also sending this to Dead Easy Desserts hosted by Sarah at Maison Cupcake. This is a challenge for desserts and puddings that take less than 30 minutes to make.

Equipment: Electric beaters, 8in (20cm) round silicone baking dish

Ingredients

5oz (140g) Unsalted butter or baking spread

1oz (28g) Soft light brown sugar

4 Pineapple rings

4 Glacé cherries, halved

4oz (110g) Caster sugar

2 Large eggs

6oz (170g) Self raising flour

4 tbsp (60ml) Milk

Method

* Mircowave settings based on 750 watt oven

1. Weigh out 1oz (28g) of the butter and in a small dish melt the butter in the microwave on HIGH for 30 seconds.

2. Stir in the light brown sugar until it has all melted.

3. Pour into the bottom of the silicone dish (there's no need to line or grease it).

4. Lay the pineapple slices on top and arrange the cherries halves around and it them.

5. In a separate bowl cream the remaining butter and caster sugar together.

6. Beat in the eggs with a little of the flour if necessary.

7. Fold in the flour along with the milk until all the mixture is combined.

8. Spread over the pineapple rings.

9. Put the silicone dish on a microwavable plate.

10. Cook on HIGH for 7 minutes. It should have risen and be springy to the touch.

11. Leave to stand for 5 minutes before turning out onto plate for serving.