Steamed pineapple upside down cake

There is a time to be healthy and virtuous – and a time to eat sticky cake with creme fraiche… Or so the saying doesn’t go! This cake is sticky, and moist, and light. It really is a cake to make you smile. Perfect warm as a pudding, or cold as a tea cake. The kids went crazy for it, although as Bea doesn’t like pineapple she picked the fruit out, you know, carefully extracting any possible trace of healthy food as kids tend to do.

This is a pressure cooker recipe, but if you don’t have one then, firstly, you really should consider getting one (they are awesome for time pressured mums) and, secondly, you could try steaming it in a casserole pot with a lid for about 1 hour. I haven’t tried this as I devised the recipe specifically for my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker but as the rule goes it’s usually about 3 times longer in normal cooking conditions. Do let me know if you try it in a ‘normal’ pan.

1. Grease a 20in cake tin with a little butter.
2. Beat the sugar and butter a little, add the eggs and gradually add the flour, then the milk.
3. Spoon the syrup onto the greased cake tin bottom.
4. Cut the pineapple chunks up and pop on top of the syrup.
5. Pour the batter out onto the pineapple and syrup base and level off.
6. Cover with lightly greased foil and then baking paper. Secure with a piece of string.
7. Add 2 cups of cold water to the pressure cooker. Lower the cake in. Cook on high pressure for 27 minutes. Fast release the pressure.
8. Allow to cool enough so you can handle the tin. Place a plate on top of the cake tin and tip upside down to release the cake. Serve warm or cold with crème fraiche, ice cream or custard.