Paul´s Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes | Bake Off Technical Challenge

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Week one of the 2020 Great British Bake Off has just finished, and what an exciting “Cake Week” it was! A Battenburg cake signature (I still have to try making one of those!), a showstopper cake sculpted into the bakers´ idol´s head and of course the technical challenge: Paul´s Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes.

This year, I´m trying to bake things every week according to the theme, so this past week I have been making a lot of cakes! I really wanted to give these Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes a try – and they were a success! I´ve written up the recipe below for you with a few (helpful) comments and tips and tricks as to how I did things! The original recipe can be found on the Channel 4/GBBO Website. Enjoy!

Suggestions for Recipe Alterations

I always try to follow the advice of my baking hero Mary Berry, who says you should always follow the recipe exactly when you are making something for the first time, and only start changing things the next time. So, I fought my urge to change this recipe up a bit, but I definitely have a few suggestions of how you could change (dare I say improve?) this recipe a bit or things that I might do differently next time.

For one, I thought it would have been great to use the zest and or juice of the lemon that wasn’t used for the caramel and add it to the sponge mix! That would have given a nice little bit of flavour to the sponge.

Also, if you don´t want to buy a pineapple and cut it, you could just buy a tin of pineapple rings (just make sure there are 6 rings). That would make life a lot easier and probably work just as well! Also, I found it hard to find Maraschino cherries so used glacé cherries instead, which worked just fine.

What Equipment do you need to make Pineapple Upside Down Cakes?

Ah yes, everywhere I looked the right type of moulds I was looking for only came in packs of four! I hummed and I hawed but decided not to be ridiculous and buy two packs! So, I bought this pack of 4 mini pudding moulds from Lakeland.

That obviously meant though that I couldn´t make all 6 cakes at once! But don´t fret if you´re in the same situation – it´s not a problem! Just bake four pineapple upside down cakes (that´ll also give you a good indication of the baking time needed) and then bake the other two afterwards. This may sound like a bit of a faff, but it wasn´t really. Leave the cakes to cool for a few minutes once out the oven, turn two of them out, and then give the moulds a quick wash and grease them again. If the caramel syrup goes a bit hard whilst you are waiting for the first batch to bake, simply give it a couple seconds in the microwave to liquidise again.

Why not make the custard whilst you are waiting for the first batch of cakes (find the recipe in my baking basics post on How to make Crème Anglaise (Custard)), and then do all the washing/tidying up whilst you are waiting for the last two cakes to bake! It all works out so well!

More Recipes Inspired by the Great British Bake Off

I have many a recipe on this blog that was inspired by the Great British Bake Off! You should definitely go check some of them out:

• Mary Berry´s Strawberry Fraisier Cake
• Classic Victoria Sponge Cake
• Mary Berry´s Bakewell Tart with Feathered Icing
• Paul´s Mini Pork Pies
• Mini Chocolate and Raspberry Sandwich Cakes
• Paul Hollywood´s Hand-Raised Chicken, Bacon and Apricot Pie
• Mary Berry´s Frosted Walnut Layer Cake
• Chocolate and Nut Baked Alaska
• Paul Hollywood´s Mini Custard Tarts
• Swiss Roll Cake with Strawberries and Cream

Paul´s Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes | Bake Off Technical Challenge

Recipe

Ingredients:

FOR THE CARAMEL SYRUP:

• 130g caster sugar, divided into 30g and 100g
• 65ml just-boiled water
• 1 lemon wedge

FOR THE TOPPING:

• 1 small pineapple
• 6 maraschino or glacé cherries

FOR THE SPONGE CAKES:

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 125g self-raising flour

TO DECORATE:

• 100ml double cream, well chilled
• 6 maraschino or glacé cherries

FOR THE CUSTARD:

If you want to serve these cakes with custard, check out the recipe here.

YOU WILL ALSO NEED:

• 6cm and 1.5cm round cutters
• 6x 175ml mini pudding moulds (I bought these ones by Lakeland)
• piping bag and a star nozzle

Method:

1. To make the syrup, add 30g of the caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of cold water to a saucepan and set over a low heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, then increase the heat and leave to simmer for 3-5 minutes until golden.
2. Take off the heat and carefully pour in the just-boiled water (keep the pot at a distance as the caramel will spit). Return to the heat and add in the remaining 100g of caster sugar and lemon wedge. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved and leave the mixture to simmer for about 15-20 minutes until golden and of a syrupy consistency and then remove the lemon wedge.
3. Next, liberally grease the pudding moulds with some melted butter (especially the bottoms) to stop the cakes from sticking and preheat the oven to 180°C.
4. Whilst the caramel is cooking, you can prepare the pineapple slices. Cut the top and bottom off of the pineapple, then stand it on its base and carefully cut away the skin on the sides. Slice the peeled pineapple into 1cm thick slices. Use the 6cm cutter to cut rounds out of the pineapple slices, then use the 1.5cm cutter (or a sharp knife) to remove the centre hard core and make a pineapple ring. Repeat until you have 6 rings.
5. To make the sponge, start by creaming together the butter and sugar for about 3-5 minutes until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the egg, a little at a time, beating well between each addition. You may want to add a tablespoon of the flour with the last addition to prevent the mixture from curdling. Finally, add the self-raising flour and give it a quick mix until fully combined.
6. To “assemble” the pineapple upside down cakes for baking, evenly divide the caramel syrup between the 6 moulds (I used about 20g per mould). Next, place a pineapple ring at the bottom of each mould and put a maraschino or glacé cherry into the centre of the ring. Then, put equal amounts of the sponge cake mix into each of the moulds (about 75g per mould) and level the surfaces with the back of a metal teaspoon.
7. Place the moulds onto a baking tray (this will make it easier to put them in/take them out of the oven) and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until risen, a golden-brown colour and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
8. Leave the cakes to cool in their tins for a few minutes, then carefully run a palette knife around the edges of the cake to help loosen them. Turn the cakes out onto a serving plate and leave to cool.
9. Whilst the cakes are cooling you can make the custard if you are wanting to serve it with these cakes. To make it, follow the recipe in my baking basics post on How To Make Crème Anglaise (Custard).
10. Once the cakes have cooled you can make the whipped cream topping. Pour the chilled double cream into a bowl and beat with an electric whisk until stiff (for best results, you could chill the bowl and beaters before whisking. For more tips on this, check out this post here).
11. Spoon the cream into a piping bag fitted with a star-shaped nozzle. Pipe the cream on top of the cakes in little rosettes and decorate each cake with a cherry.

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