“The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age. “
Lucille Ball
This post is for you Anne (of Simply Anne’s). Here’s a picture of the cake I mentioned yesterday. Since it’s the first one, it always holds a special place in my heart. It’s been a long time, almost 6 years, but I was very pleased with it at the time. This is a pineapple sponge with 3 layers, cream and pineapple bits within, and iced with whipped pineapple flavoured cream. It’s very refreshing and fruity (obviously), and light. Have made this several times since!!
Ingredients:
Sponge
Eggs – 5 (250gms)
Powdered Sugar – 125 gms
Flour – 125gms ( flour= half the weight of the eggs i.e. 125gms )
Cornflour – 2 tbs (makes the cake texture lighter)
Baking powder – 1tsp
Salt – 1 pinch
Vanilla Essence/Extract – 1 tsp
Pineapple Essence/Extract – 1 tsp
Filling/Topping:
Cream – 400ml (whipping/35% fat)
Icing Sugar – 3-4 Tbsp
Pineapple Essence/Extract – 1 tsp
Pineapple Bits – 1 tin/approx 1 cup of chopped bits
Filling/Topping:
Cream – 400ml (whipping/35% fat)
Icing Sugar – 3-4 Tbsp
Pineapple Essence/Extract – 1 tsp
Pineapple Bits – 1 tin/approx 1 cup of chopped bits
Method:
For the sponge
For the sponge
-
Preheat oven to 190deg C , reduce to 180deg C after 10 mins of putting the cake in.
- Grease and line a 9″ring tin; A springform cake tin is always better.
- Sift the flour + baking powder + salt + cornflour 3 times.
- Beat the eggs and sugar well with beater till very thick ribbon falls and holds in place for at least 5 seconds (beat for approx 10mins)
- Add vanilla essence + pineapple essence and beat for 1 min.
- Gently fold in the sifted flour; mix lightly so that air doesnt escape.
- Turn gently into tin and bake for 30-35mins till done.
- Once done, remove from tin after 5 mins and leave on rack to cool completely. Cut horizontally into 3 layers.
- Filling:
- Chop the pineapple bits into tiny pieces,and reserve some bigger bits for the topping.
- Whip 400ml whipping cream with 4tbs pwdrd sugar +1 tsp pineapple essence until thick and holds peaks.
- Reserve 1/2 for icing the top.
- Take about 1/4 a cup of cream(approx 4-5 tbsp), and colour it with yellow food colour.
- In the remainder of the cream ,fold in the chopped pineapple bits.
- Place the bottom most layer of the sponge on your serving platter, spread 1/2 of the whipped cream and bits over it.
- Place the middle layer over this, and repeat with the rest of the fruit cream.
- Topping:
- Spread the remaining pineapple cream over the top and sides of the cake.
- Pipe a decoration with the coloured yellow cream from a zipbag with the corner snipped. I have marbled the cake. Use silver dragees if you like.
- Pipe a border with the coloured cream.
- Chill well before serving.
Note: If you think the sponge hasn’t come out very soft, you can sprinkle the first 2 layers with 1/4 cup of a mixture of the pineapple syrup and juice of 1/2 a lemon (add a little sugar if you think it isn’t sweet enough). Make sure you remember to sprinkle the layer only after placing it in position on the serving platter.
