Caribbean: Venezuela: Venezuelan Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
INGREDIENTS:
3 cups self-raising flour
4 eggs
250 gr unsalted butter (note 1)
1 cup pineapple juice (note 2)
2 ⅓ cups of sugar
1 medium can of pineapple
canned cherries as much as you want
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF)
Grease a round cake pan with butter and set aside.
Separate the eggs yolk and reserve the egg whites for later.
In a big bowl beat the butter with 1 cup of sugar, the vanilla extract, the salt and the egg yolks. Pour slowly half of the pineapple juice. Add 2 cups of flour and mix well. Now add the rest of the juice and the last cup of flour. Mix until a homogeneous batter is formed. (note 3)
In another bowl beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add 1 cup of sugar slowly until the peaks are completely firm.
With a spatula add the beaten egg whites with evolving movements. Try to be as gentle as you can to avoid losing air.
Prepare the caramel: Heat a small pan and melt ⅓ cup of sugar. When the sugar is slightly brown add two tablespoons of water and immediately transfer to the greased pan and spread to the bottom.
Place the pineapples slices as you like and garnish with some cherries. I like to put a cherry on each pineapple slice
(the classic look). Pour the batter and take it to the oven for 30 minutes until it’s fully cooked.
With a knife separate the cake from the baking pan. Wait until the cake is completely chill and then flip the cake onto a flat surface (like a flat plate).
NOTES:
Make sure your butter is room temperature. If the butter is too cold it will form lumps and it will be harder to mix the batter.
Try to choose a pineapple juice that has low sugar.
In this stage, the batter will be super thick and that’s completely fine. Later we will add the egg whites and they will soften the batter to the perfect point.
