Ringing in delight

 I was rather excited last night about my first shot at Pineapple Upside down cake. I had gone through a good 20 recipes, decided there was no taking chance when it came to what is my mother's favourite cake and went ahead with Nigella's recipe. I trust Nigella, I can depend on her. I have always emerged victorious with her recipes. I had taken a print out, read a tens of times, made tiny red and purple hearts all over the sheet of paper, even drew a pineapple with lush green leaves. I couldn't wait to wake up and get to work. OK I sound like a maniac right now...

This morning however I woke up with a splitting headache and the least desire to cook. I think I had exhausted myself last night. But then, I had put up a status on Facebook, (ramifications of irrational obsessive disorder of some sort) which said how my Sunday would be all about PIneapple upside down cake. I had a face to keep. 

So I got to work nonetheless.

Ingredients

• butter (for greasing)
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 6 slices canned pineapple in juice (Now this depends on the size of your tin, I used 5)
• 3 tbsp of the juice 
• 10-12 glace cherries
• 100 grams plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100 gms soft butter
• 100 gms caster sugar
• 2  eggs

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Butter the cake tin and keep.

Sprinkle the 2 tbsp of sugar on top of the buttered base, and then arrange the pineapple slices to make a pattern like in the picture. Fill each pineapple ring with a glace cherry, and then dot one in each of the spaces in between.

Put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, butter, caster sugar and eggs into a food processor and run it to make a smooth batter. Pour in the pineapple juice and thin it a little.
Now that's what the recipe says but my food processor had died a gruesome death, so I used my bare hands to make the batter.A little tiring but going by the how the cake turned out, I think I did a fair job.

Pour this mixture over the artwork, the cherry and pineapple masterpiece you have created on the tin and spread it out with much love and care.

Slide it into the oven and bake for 30 minutes.  Ease spatula around the edge of the tin, place a plate on top and in a quick manoeuvre  flip it and turn it upside-down.

Not the most flattering photograph but sure tasted great.

5 minutes before it was demolished.

Recipe courtesy www.nigella.com
However, I have made slight alterations to the recipe to suit the conditions of my kitchen (a far cry from Nigella's) and my mood or the lack of it.

However, two tiny pointers
1. The pineapple rings mustn't be too thick. I think thin slices would be better.
2. The next time I bake this I am going to check after 20 minutes, before continuing to 30 minutes. This time the upper crust of the cake (the bottom once you turn it upside down) was slightly burnt. Though I had deftly scraped on the thin burnt crust, and no one got a hint of it, I wonder why it happened in the first place. Or bake at a lower temperature, around 180 degrees may be. If you are reading this blog and have an idea please share.