Pineapple Cake (Annasi cake)

Pineapple is a very common fresh fruit throughout the whole year in Sri Lanka. In Europe it can be very hard to find a nice orange ripe fresh pineapple with an amazing smell. Instead, we tend to find green pineapples grown in glasshouses. In Sri Lanka we use pineapple a lot for a cooking, beverages, sweets and cakes. Upside-down cake was one of my teenage favourite cakes, here is my own recipe for pineapple cake suitable to serve as dessert at a dinner party.

INGREDIENTS

125g butter or margarine, softened

125g caster sugar

2 medium eggs

125g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tbs milk

1 tbs lemon juice

METHOD

Heat the oven to 180′. Line a small round cake tin with baking parchment. Cream the butter and the sugar together until pale (use an electric hand mixer if you have one). Beat in the eggs. Sift the four and baking powder together then fold into the butter and egg mixture using a large metal spoon. Add the milk and lemon juice, then pour the mixture into the lined cake tin. Gently spread out with a spatula then bake for 20-25 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack.

For the pineapple stew
1 ripe medium pineapple (peeled and diced)
2 pieces of cinnamon stick
4 tbs sugar
Mixed all together and slow cook until the pineapple has absorbed the syrup and become dry. Remove the cinnamon sticks then let the stew cool down

Icing 
100g unsalted butter
175g icing sugar
Mix all together until a smooth cream (or use whipped double cream)

Cut the cake in two, sandwich with the cream and pineapple stew, decorate and finish as you like.