If you’ve grown up in South Asia, this is going to be your nostalgia cake. Every South Asian kid in the continent has grown up with an Upside Down Pineapple Cake. This is the beauty of food, it’s the common thread that brings us together.

This gorgeous Upside Down Pineapple Cake is nostalgia in a bite, with a twist. It’s soft and it’s moist with the perfect juiciness of sweet pineapples. Passionfruit brings a refreshing tropical lightness to the cake that pairs beautifully with the lightly caramelised pineapples. Bonus? It’s incredibly easy to make!

This pound cake recipe is based off my Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake. I didn’t change a whole lot because this recipe is so versatile and easy to adapt. It’s pretty straightforward, but if you want some extra tips on how to really get this recipe right, you can check out all the tips here.

Recipe

Serve: 1x 8inch cake

Ingredients

For the pound cake:

• 130g unsalted butter, soft at room temperature (30°C)

• 50g olive oil (I use extra virgin olive oil)

• 300g caster sugar (a)

• 200g eggs~ approx. 4 eggs, at room temperature (30°C)

• 300g plain flour

• 10g baking powder

• 2g salt

• 110g heavy cream

• 90g passionfruit juice

• 4-6 slices of fresh pineapples, sliced into rings

• 20g caster sugar (b)

For the passionfruit-vanilla syrup:

• 30g water

• 20g passionfruit juice

• 10g caster sugar

• 1/4 vanilla bean or 1/2 tsp vanilla paste

Method

For the cake:

• Preheat oven to 170°C.

• Grease and line an 8” round cake tin with parchment paper.

• Sprinkle sugar (b) at the base of the cake tin. Cut the fresh pineapple into 1/2 cm rings. Use a cookie butter to cut the centre out.

• Lay the pineapple rings at the base of the tin. Cut into pieces to fit the edges if necessary. Keep aside.

• In a medium bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together. Keep aside.

• Combine the heavy cream and passionfruit juice together. Keep aside.

• In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, add the butter, olive oil and sugar (b). Beat on medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture looks fluffy and pale in colour.

• Add the eggs in additions and beat for another 3-5 minutes until well emulsified.

• Add the dry ingredients and mix on very low speed until just combined.

• With the mixer running, stream in the cream-passionfruit juice mix. Mix until just combined.

• Transfer the batter to the prepared cake tin. Spread the batter with the spatula and even it out.

• Bake for 70-75 mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

For the passionfruit-vanilla syrup:

• Meanwhile, while the cake is baking, prepare the syrup: In a small pot, add the water, passionfruit juice, sugar and vanilla. Bring to a boil.

• Once the cake is out of the oven, poke a few holes using a skewer. Soak the cake with the syrup. Allow to cool completely.

Serve:

• Once the cake has cooled down, use a serrated knife to cut into slices.

• Serve as is with a cup of coffee, or with a dollop of whipped cream. Enjoy!

Notes:

• you can scale the recipe down to make a smaller cake.

If you love cakes as much as I do, here are some more delicious recipes you can try:

If you enjoyed that and tried it at home, please tag me at @myyummyspatula on Instagram so that I can see all your bakes! For more BTS stories, updates and fun, you can follow along here: