This cake is a true delight. It’s delicate, tropical, and has perfect texture. The star of the show, obviously, is the caramel made by concentrating fresh pineapple juice. Make the whole recipe or just skip the cake all together and make the caramel as a sauce to put over vanilla ice cream or countless other desserts that would be improved with a little drizzle of pineapple spiked caramel. Or dig into the cake with a glass of Castello di Meleto Colte alle Bolle Spumante Rose.
Makes: 1 cake
Ingredients
For the caramel:
2-3 cups fresh pineapple chunks
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter
For the cake:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
Demerara sugar for finishing
Directions
Blend pineapple chunks in blender until smooth. Transfer to a small saucepan over medium high heat. Let the pineapple bubble and reduce, stirring often. Once pineapple has reduced by about half, add sugar and stir until it dissolves into the liquid. Add butter, vanilla, and salt. Continue to cook and stir until mixture is thick, sticky, and golden brown. Set aside and let cool slightly.
Preheat oven to 350. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the sugar, butter, and vanilla with a hand mixer, stand mixer, or whisk. Add the eggs one at a time while continuing to beat the mixture. Once these ingredients are well-incorporated, add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until well-combined then add milk. Continue to beat mixture until smooth. Once batter is smooth, fold the caramel in, reserving about 1/4 of of it for finishing . Pour mixture into a greased 9” springform pan and bake 30-45 minutes or until a toothpick can be inserted into the middle of the cake and come out clean. Remove from oven, pour remaining caramel over cake and sprinkle generously with demerara sugar. Let cool at least 15 minutes before removing from pan.
Lee Kalpakis is a recipe developer living in Brooklyn, New York. She grew up in her family’s restaurant in the Hudson Valley and has since worked as a cook, host, producer, and writer in the food media world. She loves natural wine, summer produce, and rock and roll music.
