caramelised pineapple & coconut cake

Seven Days of Pineapple - Day 4

One of my favourite cakes is the rich and moist Persian Orange Cake, where whole oranges are blended with almond meal and egg to make a sticky, dense cake.

So instead of using oranges, what about pineapple instead? And what goes better with pineapple than it’s old pal the coconut. Add that too!

What do you get? This awesome sticky-sweet, tropical cake.

And to bring out the natural sugars of the pineapple, cook it a little in advance. This adds a whole new complexity of flavour to the dessert. I hope you enjoy it.

Caramelised Pineapple & Coconut Cake

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 8-10.

Ingredients:

Cake
550g pineapple flesh
60ml dark rum
6 eggs, beaten
300g almond meal
50g desiccated coconut
100g caster sugar
100g brown sugar
50g demerara sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder


Coconut Rum Syrup
¼ cup small pineapple pieces
¼ cup water
¼ cup sugar
40ml coconut rum

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190ºC/170ºc fan forced. Grease springform tin.

2. Panfry or barbeque the pineapple until golden brown and caramelised. Place on a plate or in a bowl and pour rum over hot pineapple. Allow to cool.

3. Blend pineapple and rum mixture thoroughly in a food processor.

4. Add remaining ingredients and blend completely.

5. Pour batter into prepared tin. Bake for 1 hour (if cake is still very wet, cook a little longer).

6. Meanwhile make the coconut rum syrup by heating water and sugar until sugar is dissolved.

7. Add the pineapple pieces then bring to the boil for a minute or two and allow the sugar syrup to thicken.

8. Remove from heat and add coconut rum. Mix well.

9. When the cake is cooked, remove from oven and pour hot syrup all over hot cake, reserving pineapple pieces.

10. Cool cake in tin before gently removing. Decorate with remaining pineapple pieces from the syrup.

Pineapples supplied by the team at King of Fruit