Pineapple tipsy cake with caramel sauce

This pineapple cake, based on a simple cake mix, has big, bright flavours. It's soaked with a rum syrup after baking and topped with a rich caramel sauce for serving.

Pineapple tipsy cake. Credit: Robin Murray / Mark Moriarty: Off Duty Chef

• serves

  6

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  50 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1 pineapple
• 100 g sugar
• 100 g almond meal (ground almonds)

• 100 g plain flour
• 1 heaped tsp baking powder
• 50 g olive oil
• 50 g butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 lime, juiced and zested

Syrup

• 100 ml rum
• 50 g sugar
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract

Caramel sauce

• 50 g brown sugar
• 100 g cream

Lime cream

• 100 g crème Fraiche
• 10 g icing sugar
• 1 lime, juiced and zested
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract

Soaking time: at least 30 minutes, or overnight.

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Line a loaf tin with baking paper (parchment).
2. Peel the pineapple and remove the core. Cut flesh into half-moon shapes approximately 2 cm thick.
3. Place on a hot dry pan and blacken the outside (about 1 minute each side).
4. Line the bottom of the loaf tin with a row of overlapping pineapple slices.
5. Mix the sugar, almond meal (ground almonds), flour and baking powder in a bowl. Add the olive oil, butter, eggs and the lime zest and juice, mix to combine, then pour into the loaf tin on top of the pineapple. Bake for 40-45mins.
6. As the cake cools, heat the rum (you can burn off the alcohol in the rum if desired), sugar and vanilla and reduce to a syrup. Use a skewer to poke holes in the cake and pour the syrup over the cake. Allow it to soak at room temperature for at least 30 minutes (or if you have time, in the fridge overnight).
7. To make the caramel sauce, heat the brown sugar until a dark caramel is formed, add the cream and bring to the boil. Keep warm.
8. Mix the crème fraiche, icing sugar, vanilla, lime juice and zest and whisk until thick.
9. Turn the tipsy cake out onto a plate, pour over the caramel sauce and serve with the crème fraiche.

Note

You can add a touch of rum to the caramel sauce, too, if you like.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.