Lorraine Pascale's upside-down cake recipe

Lorraine Pascale's upside-down cake recipe is made with mouth-watering caramelised pineapple, rum and vanilla. It's a delicious upside cake that's easy to make. Made for the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity: The Big Hour Cake Sale Lorraine Pascale's caramelised pineapple, rum and vanilla upside-down cake is full of flavour and perfect if you're in the mood for taking your baking skills to the next level - delicious. This bake serves 6-8 people and will take around 1hr to prepare and cook. It's well worth the wait! This impressive upside down cake is much easier to make than it may look - plus its tastes delicious too. Perfect with a cup of tea or with ice cream served for dessert - the choice is yours!

Ingredients

• 50g butter, plus extra for greasing
• 50g soft light brown sugar
• 1 large can of pineapple rings in juice (about 7 rings), drained well
• Splash of dark rum or a squeeze of lime (optional)
• 8 fresh or frozen raspberries

For the sponge:

• 125g butter, at room temperature
• 125g soft light brown sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• Grated zest of ½ lemon
• Seeds of ½ a vanilla pod or a few drops of vanilla extract
• 125g plain flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• Good pinch of ground cinnamon
• 1tbsp milk (optional)

To serve:

• Mascarpone
• Icing sugar, or runny honey, to taste

Method

1. 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
   2. Melt the butter in the frying pan over a high heat and immediately add the sugar.
   3. Stir continuously until dissolved and syrupy, then add the pineapple rings, placing one in the middle and the rest around the outside, and cook them for 3-4 mins so they get a good colour on the bottom.
   4. Keep spooning the butter and sugar mixture over them, so the tops are coated and caramelised.
   5. Add the rum, or lime juice, if using and cook for a further minute until thick and syrupy.
   6. Take the pan off the heat, place a raspberry in the centre of each pineapple ring and set aside.

   For the sponge:

   1. Cream together the butter, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Next, add the eggs, one at a time, beating hard between each addition.
   2. Add the lemon zest and vanilla and mix for a few seconds.
   3. Now stir in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon until well mixed. If the mixture seems a little stiff, add some milk to loosen it.
   4. Carefully, from a low height, so as not to disturb the positioning of the pineapple rings, spoon the mixture in dollops around their tops.
   5. Gently spread the mixture out evenly using the back of the spoon until completely covered, being careful not to drag along any syrup that rises up.
   6. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 30-35 mins, or until a skewer into the centre of the cake comes out clean. The cake should be golden on top, feel springy to the touch and smell cooked.
   7. Leave to cool for a few minutes before carefully turning the cake out onto a large plate. The best way to do this is to invert the plate on top of the pan and flip the pan and plate over at once, then remove the pan to reveal the upside-down cake.
   8. Serve with a dollop of mascarpone sweetened with some icing sugar or honey.