Pineapple and Cardamom Cake

Pineapples are plentiful at the moment so it seems a shame not to give this luscious cake another airing.  This is one of those sticky upside-down affairs that is best eaten warm and the marrying of the cardamom with the pineapple just seems to be one of those inspired flavour combinations -  simply made for each other.

You can make this cake look really elegant - if your fruit arranging skills are more advanced than mine - and create something really impressive for a dinner party desert - but I just made it for afternoon tea for the marauding after school hordes.  We had it with some homemade yoghurt, but goes equally well with cream or ice-cream.

Ingredients

60 g butter

1/2 cup brown sugar firmly packed

Fresh pineapple slices or 470 g canned pineapple

125 g butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup milk (can be buttermilk)

1 level teaspoon cardamom seeds

NOTE: You can use ground cardamom - just not as good

Method

1.  Preheat oven to 160oc

2.  Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin with non-stick baking paper

3.  Melt together butter and sugar until combined and spread over bottom of cake tin.

4.  Arrange pineapple slices over base of prepared tin

5.  Beat together sugar and butter until light and creamy.

6.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition

7.  Add the flour, milk and cardamom seeds and mix to combine

8.  Spread mixture evenly over pineapple base

9.  Bake in pre-heated oven for 35-45 minutes until skewer inserted in centre comes out clean.

9.  Remove from heat and set aside for 15 minutes before turning out.

10.Best eaten warm.

Baby pineapple fruit just forming

NOTE:  Pineapples are really easy to grow in a frost-free garden.  They are part of the extensive bromeliad tribe - which means they are a really easy and trouble-free plant and the home-grown ones are most delicious pineapples you will ever eat.  You simply take the top off an old pineapple and plant into some good soil. Depending on where you live, they take 18 months-2 years to produce fruit - I use them as a border plant in front of my edible hedge.  They really are a most attractive plant and always create a talking point - well worth giving them a go.

Will be ready to eat in another month or so