Recipe
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Fluffy cake baked over pineapple rings in syrup: the classic Cuban grandma dessert, easy, elegant and very delicious.
- Preparation20 min
- Cooking40 min
- Total time1 h
- Servings6 servings
- DifficultyEasy
Volteado de piña is one of the desserts we make most often with our grandmothers in Cuba. On one hand, it is beautiful and tasty. On the other, its star ingredient is available when there is no chocolate, cream, strawberries or anything that usually appears in European or American pastry books.
It is a dessert that can indeed be made in Cuba today, easy to prepare at home and with a flavor that transports you back to your tenderest childhood. If you have never made it, give it a try this weekend.
Ingredients
Check off the ingredients you have.
Method
The pan
- Preheat the oven to 180 ºC.
- Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper. If you do not have it, grease the pan with butter, dust it with a thin layer of flour, remove the excess and sprinkle a thin layer of brown sugar.
- Place the pineapple rings on the bottom in the design you want for your upside-down cake. Do not discard the juice from the canned pineapple, as you will use it later. Set the pan aside.
CiberCuba
The cake
- Separate the egg whites from the yolks and beat the whites until stiff peaks form.
- Add the sugar little by little, without stopping beating, until a firm meringue forms. It does not matter if it does not make perfect peaks, but it must be strong.
- Add the yolks and continue beating until they are well incorporated.
CiberCuba - Combine in a bowl the flour, baking powder and salt, and sift them so there are no lumps in the batter.
- Incorporate the dry ingredients into the meringue little by little, with a firm spatula and folding movements. Do not use the blender.
- When you finish, the mixture will be dense. Add ½ cup of the reserved pineapple juice to soften it and give it flavor, and finish mixing with folding movements, which are the ones that aerate the batter.
Baking and assembly
- Pour the mixture into the pan, without exceeding 2/3 of its capacity, and bake for about 40 minutes.
- Check the doneness by piercing the center with a skewer: it should come out dry. Remove the cake from the oven.
CiberCuba - Let it cool down. Ideally, wait until it cools before flipping it.
- If you used a floured pan, verify that the cake is well detached from the walls. Place on top the dish where you will serve and flip carefully, letting the cake fall gently.
- If you used parchment paper, remove it little by little so as not to damage the pineapple design.
CiberCuba - Soak the cake with a little of the syrup from the canned pineapple or serve it on the side, so each person can add it to their liking.
- If you wish, decorate with cherries or some fruit balls that contrast with the pineapple.
