When it is as damp and dreary as this it is time to turn the heat up on the Aga and do some baking. I'd bought a pineapple but didn't fancy eating it cold. We have entered the time of year when thoughts turn to hot, comforting food, to stews, warm puddings and custard. I looked out an old recipe for pineapple upside down cake. A daughter phoned. "I've just got to take a cake out of the oven" I told her. She wanted to know which recipe. "How retro!" was her response. She's right, of course, I don't think I've used this recipe since the sixties.
The first thing that I noticed was how much sugar was in the recipe and that a can of pineapple was specified rather than fresh. In Britain in the sixties you couldn't always rely on being able to buy a fresh pineapple that tasted of anything, they could be an expensive waste of money. The finished cake, however, did look more decorative with its circles and semi-circles of fruit than my random chunks. I cut back on the sugar and threw in a few dried cranberries. We ate a slice warm with custard for lunch and another piece cold later on with a cup of tea.
I miss our former neighbour, Sally, but we keep in touch via email. I sent her a photo of the next upside down cake to come out of the oven, as many pears as possible crammed into chocolate cake. That's my crop of pears from the garden dealt with for another year. She sent a reply, "at first glance I thought you'd sent me a cross section of the brain!" She and her husband run a busy veterinary practise. She's obviously working too hard!
If it clears up a little I'll pull on my wellies and waterproofs and have a short walk.
The remark about a cross-section of a brain made me laugh out loud - also because, glancing at your post superficially before reading it properly, I had not worked out what the picture was.
ReplyDeleteOld cake and dessert recipes usually contain loads of sugar, but I must admit I tend to follow them to the letter - if I want cake, it has to be sweet!
I've found that you can often lose an oz or two of sugar without noticing it in the finished bake. (But I've just make a lemon cake with ground almonds and sharp lemons where every bit of sugar was added. Delicious!)
DeleteLooks simply delicious, I could take a slice of each, sugar and all :)
ReplyDeleteThe old recipes are the best, tried and true, over and over again, I still use my gran's recipes from her bakery.
Hope you managed to fit a little walk in today, when I was last home, it was during the month of October, and entire month of bliss.
Hope you are keeping well.
~Jo
How lovely that you still use your Gran's recipes - she would be delighted. My recipe book is now very dog-eared. It is crammed with recipes from family and friends and is a real treasure trove of memories.
DeleteNever managed the walk, the rain got even heavier!
These cakes look wonderful and yummy. I remember making pineapple upside down cake back in the 70’s also. I know that I liked it, but have not made or seen it in years. . Last week I was looking in my old Better Homes cookbook that I got when I got married. Canned products was used in many of the recipes. I still make cauliflower soup recipe from that book.
ReplyDeleteThe old recipe books now read like historical documents. My childhood eating was confined by war time supplies followed by years of rationing and whatever we could grow for ourselves. Very different from these days of buying whatever you want whenever you want it.
DeleteNever had so many pears as this year. I haven't counted but it must be well over 500 off the one tree (a Concorde). We are giving bags of the things to whoever wants them, have a help yourself box at the front, are eating, juicing and cake-baking as many as we can, and we are simply peared-out. But pear upside down cake is now on the list.
ReplyDeleteI think we must have had just the right weather at blossom time. I've now got plenty of poached pears in the freezer. Like you, we were giving fruit away to friends and neighbours.
DeleteLooks delicious, I cant remember the last time I had a piece pineapple upside down cake.
ReplyDeleteGood with a nice dollop of whipped cream, Doc!
DeleteWe always used canned pineapple for the upside down cake. I used to make it often as it was easy and always turned out wonderful
ReplyDeleteYes, the arrangement of circles of tinned fruit with a cherry in the centre of each certainly looks more attractive than my random chunks.
DeleteI'm grateful for the sunshine today. It's been getting so cold here, no snow yet thankfully! Alex loves upside down pineapple cake, I should make him one!
ReplyDeleteAh, sunshine, doesn't it transform everything! Hope you get some more.
DeleteI am loving your two upside down cakes, and you are tempting me to make a pineapple upside down cake. Of course the down side is that I would eat the cake, ha ha.
ReplyDeleteThat's the trouble with cake, it just sits there saying, eat me!
DeleteThanks for your comment on my blog. Both those cakes look delicious but I agree with you on the amount of sugar in older recipes.
ReplyDeleteAdding less sugar in many of the older recipes doesn't seem to make any difference to the finished product.
DeleteI was aware of your horticultural skills but didn't realise they extended into Jah way territory; clever of you to arrange the raindrops so persuasively while taking advantage of the "less is more" principle.
ReplyDeleteRaw pineapple becomes more seasonally adaptable via a generous measure of kirsch.
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