Salted Pineapple and Brown Sugar Cake

 Be like a pineapple. Stand tall, wear a crown, and be sweet on the inside. Katherine Gaskin

It is going to be a scorching summer day today, our hottest in 12 months. It is a good day to stay in the shade relaxing with a long tall icy drink.

Summer always makes me think of tropical and stone fruits, and among the royalty of summer fruit is the pineapple, with its spiny crown and sweet, golden, juicy insides.

Before the heat of the day set in yesterday, I baked some beautiful pineapple adorned mini cakes to Helen Goh’s recipe for Salted Pineapple and Brown Sugar Cake.

Instead of making one big loaf cake, I halved the recipe and made 4 mini loaves. Instead of using ground fennel seeds, I used ground licorice powder. I also subbed Greek yoghurt for sour cream.

These cakes turned out perfectly golden and lovely:

To make these cakes, you will need:

Topping

10g butter, softened

40g brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground licorice powder

Pinch of salt

1 medium pineapple

Cake

90g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking sofa

50g butter

40g sugar

20g brown sugar

Zest of 1/2 orange

1 egg

75g sour cream or Greek yoghurt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Take an 8 hole mini loaf tin, and line 4 holes with baking paper. Smear butter over the base and sides of the holes that are lined.

Preheat your oven to 195 degrees Celsius.

Mix the brown sugar, licorice powder and salt for the topping on a plate.

Remove the top and bottom from the pineapple, peel it and slice it  in half vertically. Cut the eyes out of the pineapple with a paring knife.

Slice one half of the pineapple into 2cm thick slices, and cut out the core from each piece.

Ensure that when each piece of pineapple is placed standing up into the hole of the loaf tin (core side facing up), it does not protrude above the edge of the hole - trim if necessary.

Roll 4 pieces of pineapple in the sugar mixture and place core side up, standing up, in the middle of each buttered loaf tin hole.

Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda together into a small bowl.

Place the butter, sugars and orange zest into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat to incorporate. Alternately beat in the flour mixture and sour cream or yoghurt in two batches. Beat in the vanilla.

Spoon the mixture carefully on each side of the pineapple into each of the four mini loaf tin holes.

Bake in a preheated oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through.  Cool the cakes on a rack in the tin for 10 minutes before unmoulding and allowing to cool completely.