Ingredients

The following ingredients have 4 Servings
  • 410 g canned pineapple rings in juice
  • 10 glacé cherries
  • 100 g caster sugar ((I prefer golden))
  • 185 g self raising flour

Instruction

  • Measure out the self-raising flour and sugar. Switch the oven on to  170°C(Fan)/340°F/Gas Mark 5 to heat up. The cake needs to go into a hot oven, so you might want to wait for it to reach temperature before you start to mix the batter.
  • Grease a loose bottomed 8" / 20cm cake tin with vegetable oil or cake release spray, and line the bottom with baking paper (greaseproof paper or baking parchment). Lightly oil the top of the paper. Place the cake tin onto a piece of kitchen foil on a baking tray.
  • Drain the juice from the tin of pineapple rings, keeping both the pineapple and the juice. Pour the juice into a 1 litre/2 pint mixing bowl, and add 2tbs of cold water.
  • Place a pineapple ring in the centre of the tin and arrange 6 more around it. You may need to trim some of their outside edge off to make them fit. Cut 4 glacé cherries in half and place in the centre of each pineapple ring.
  • Finely chop the remaining pineapple and any trimmings, as well as the remaining 6 glacé cherries, and add to the juice.
  • Add the flour and sugar to the juice and mix with a spoon or spatula to make a thick batter. The acidic pineapple juice reacts with the raising agent in the flour and the batter will develop an airy mousse like texture.
  • Quickly spread the batter over the pineapple rings and glace cherries, gently shake the cake pan from side to side to spread the batter out and immediately put in the oven to bake for 35 minutes.
  • Test to see if the cake is cooked. When it's ready the top will be golden and springy to touch. A tooth pick pushed into the middle of the cake will come out clean. If needed return the cake to the oven for another 5 minutes before checking again.
  • Run a knife round the edge to make sure the cake hasn't stuck to the pan. I find the easiest way to remove a cake from a loose bottomed pan is to stand the pan on an unopened can and gently push down on the cake pan.
  • Put a wire cooling rack over the cake and carefully flip it over, so that the pineapple is on top. Use a pointed knife to gently lift the base of the cake pan, checking it hasn't stuck around the edge, and lift it off. Slowly and carefully peel off the parchment paper using a knife if any fruit gets stuck to it.