Pineapple Upside Down Cake

As I already discussed in a previous post, I am just starting out on my Paleo baking journey but I love cooking and baking so I am always trying out new recipes and variations. Here is a variation of the apple spice cake that actually turned out quite different in the end as a pineapple upside down cake. Again, I understand that a lot of people who eat a Paleo diet abstain from butter and other dairy products, but I do not. I stick to a high fat, low carb real-food inspired Primal/Paleo/Ancestral style of eating that allows for quality dairy. If you don't do well with dairy then you can go back to coconut oil in equal amounts as the butter and the consistency will work just fine.
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon, plus some for dusting if desired
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 C Almond flour
1/4 C Coconut flour
2 Tbsp Arrowroot powder 
1/2 C raw honey, divided
1/4 C real maple syrup
2 tsp lemon juice
4 large eggs
1/4 C melted butter
1/4 C unsweetened applesauce
4-6 slices of pineapple, plus 1/2 C crushed for topping if desired

PROCEDURE:
1. Core and slice your pineapple if you did not purchase it sliced. I used the Pineapple Corer I reviewed here.

2. Juice about half a lemon (again, I was making more in the photo than necessary as I was planning on using it for additional recipes... work smarter and not harder right?).

3. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. Mix all dry ingredients other than baking soda in a bowl.
5. Mix all other ingredients except the pineapples and syrup in a second bowl. You will only use half of the honey (1/2 C) at this time.

 

6. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients bowl slowly while combining. Mix until smooth and well combined.

*When I took the photos I added the spices after combining but realized this was unnecessary... so there is slight discrepancy here but it gives you an idea of the consistency. (I made both the apple cake and the pineapple cake on the same evening to take in to work for a treat so they have many of the same photos.)
7. Slightly oil the baking pan you are using. You can use butter, coconut oil, etc.
8.  Mix remaining syrup and honey together and spread in the bottom of the pan.

9. Place your pineapple into the bottom of the pan. I don't like cherries particularly well so did not use them but feel free to do so... or get creative in the design of your pineapple pieces even! I love cooking because it is creative and fun... have fun!

10. Bake in the oven for about 5-8 minutes.
11. Remove from oven and pour batter over the pineapple, smooth and return to the oven to bake for another 15-20 minutes. Depending on the dimensions of your pan you may need to adjust the cook time. Thicker cakes will take longer to cook through. The cake needs to be browned on the top and firm throughout or it will be too moist to eat as a cake once it cools.

12. Allow the cake to cool before removing and flipping the cake to make the pineapples right side up. 

I had a bit of a kitchen mishap when I flipped mine and it did not look very pretty as a result (people who are klutzy should not attempt to flip cakes, just sayin'... next time I'll take a photo of how it looks completed. Happy baking!

Kitchen Gadget: PROfreshionals Pineapple Corer

So I love pineapple... it is hands down my favorite fruit. It's just sooo messy! I prefer to purchase my foods in their natural form and most definitely NOT packed in syrup so my options were to give up pineapple, pay extra for the pre-chopped snack packs (and hope they are fresh and not sprayed with chemicals to keep the beautiful yellow coloring for longer), or get messy trying to slice it myself. Then I went to Walmart to pick up 1-2 things between shopping trips and saw this gadget. It's plastic and was fairly expensive so I didn't have great hopes for it but decided it was worth the risk if I could save the messiness (and maybe some of the juice to use in smoothies!) and still have my pineapple fresh. It was a good choice... this inexpensive gadget both cores and spiral slices your pineapple with minimal effort.

The packaging is fairly simple, a couple twisty-ties and piece of cardboard. Easy to remove from the 'packaging' so that is a plus in today's overly difficult packaging world (I'm talking to you electronics plastic packages that take a knife, scissors and two people to open on Christmas day!).

 My beautiful pineapple ready to be cored and sliced by a Prefreshional. 

I chopped off the top of the pineapple and placed it in a small dish to catch any juice. I suggest this quite a bit because the first time I used my pineapple corer I went through the bottom and juice went everywhere. 

Next you simple align the tube over the pineapple's core and twist. It is surprisingly easy... just keep twisting until you reach the bottom of the pineapple. What is difficult to judge however is how far down into the pineapple your corer actually is. You can gauge by seeing where the corer hits just below the top of the pineapple before you begin but if it is in a dish you can just go until you reach the bottom of the pineapple. 

It isn't stated on the packaging but pulling the pineapple corer out is a bit difficult and I tend to break the rings when I attempt to do so. For this reason I just cut through the skin of the pineapple in a straight line which makes removing the corer much simpler.

The final step to using this nifty device is to remove the handle by pressing in the yellow buttons and lifting it out of the tube. Then invert the tube and slide the rings right off. The whole process took maybe 5 minutes, including packaging up the pineapple and cleaning up. 

To clean the gadget you push the core out of the tube, rinse and run it through the dishwasher. If you don't use a dishwasher you can clean it with the rest of your dishes by hand. It it pretty easy.

Should your Walmart not have pineapple corers there is a link to this exact one on Amazon at the bottom of the post. If you don't use plastics in your house then you'll be pleased to know that there are plenty of pineapple corer/slicer combinations out there made in stainless steel as well. 

Now to go have some pineapple... yumm!