For those of you who can’t eat gluten or dairy, or perhaps know of people who can’t, this is a lovely alternative to the classic pineapple upside-down cake. The sponge is light, the syrup is sticky and the polenta gives it a nice crunch. You wouldn’t know it was free from anything!
Ingredients
Topping
1 Small Tin Pineapple Rings
Glacé Cherries
50g Sunflower Spread, plus extra for greasing
50g Brown Sugar
Sponge
3 Eggs
130g Sunflower Spread
130g Caster Sugar
120g Ground Almonds
75g Polenta
½ Tsp Gluten Free Baking Powder
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180ᵒC. Lightly grease the outsides of one 20cm round cake tin with sunflower spread. Line the bottom of the tin with greaseproof paper or silicon.
- In a small pan, melt together the sunflower spread and brown sugar to create the syrup. Pour the syrup over the bottom of the cake tin and evenly spread it out.
- Place the pineapple rings onto the syrup, making sure they are not overlapping, and add the glacé cherries into the centre of each ring.
- To make the sponge, whisk together the sunflower spread and sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time and continue whisking until all incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the ground almonds, polenta and baking powder.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and use a large spoon or a spatula to fold together.
- Evenly spread the cake mix on top of the pineapple rings, cherries and syrup.
- Bake the cake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes. Check that it is cooked by inserting a skewer and checking that it comes out clean.
- Leave the cake in the tin to cool for at least 20 minutes before turning it upside down. This gives it enough time to set up and it should still be warm to serve.
