Healthy Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Pineapple upside- down cake is a moist flavorful fruit cake topped with jaggery caramel, pineapple rings and cherries. This classic tea-time cake with a soft crumb and gorgeous golden color is delicious and has refreshing pineapple flavors in each bite. The recipe is egg-free , makes use of whole wheat flour instead of refined flour and replaces refined sugar with jaggery. I do agree, the bakes made using refined flour / maida are very light , but when it comes to health, i do not mind having a slightly dense cake . I have used fresh pineapple rings, you may used canned fruit too. Serve it as a dessert or grab a piece or two at tea-time , this healthy pineapple upside-down cake is sure to please your senses !

To make this upside-down cake , a jaggery caramel is prepared and added to a greased cake pan, pineapple slices / rings and cherries are topped over this caramel in a beautiful and artistic manner. The cake batter is slowly poured over it and the cake is baked. On cooling , the cake is turned over and served upside-down.

Pineapple is a happy fruit in my family and i love adding it in my dishes as well. I have added this tropical delight in my kesari , fried rice, raitas, desserts . But i just hate the cleaning and chopping part as it is very laborious and messy . Luckily now a days food marts like Big Bazar and Reliance Fresh have separate counters for pineapple, which allows the customers to select their fruit , then the selected fruit is cleaned and sliced to beautiful rings and packed in fresh wraps. In my last visit to big bazar, i happily grabbed 2 packs of this beauty .While one pack vanished on the same day, i securely hid the other as i had plans to make a pineapple upside- down cake using it. The recipe is very simple and easy to follow. I roughly followed my pineapple muffin recipe to make the base of the cake. The cake turned far better than my expectations. If you are also a pineapple lover like us, this healthy pineapple upside-down cake is a must try for you !

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Serves: 8 slices

Ingredients for the cake

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup curd
• 1/2 cup jaggery powder
• 4 tablespoon ghee / unsalted butter/ oil
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh pineapple
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Pinch of salt

Ingredients for Topping

• 2 tablespoon jaggery powder
• 1 teaspoon ghee / butter
• 4-5 slices of fresh pineapple slices
• 12-14 candied cherries

Method:

1. To begin with grease a 8" cake pan and keep aside. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. To prepare the jaggery caramel, heat a pan and add ghee or butter to it. Lower the flame and add jaggery powder to it. The jaggery will melt and start bubbling. At this stage,put off the flame. Immediately pour this jaggery caramel into the greased cake pan. Tilt the pan , so that the caramel coats the base of the pan evenly.

2. Now arrange the pineapple slices beautifully. Place candied cherries in the holes of the pineapple slices and empty spaces. Our cake topping is ready.

3. Now we will prepare the batter for the cake. Sift whole wheat flour, cinnamon powder, baking powder and salt twice in a pan. Our dry ingredients are ready.

                             
4. In another bowl, cream ghee and jaggery powder. Add curd and whisk well . Add these wet ingredients to the dry ones and blend with a spatula. Do not over beat. Fold in chopped pineapple pieces to the batter .

5. Carefully pour the batter over the arranged pineapple slices and tap the pan lightly. Bake the cake at 180 degrees Celsius in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until the tester toothpick comes out clean.

 6. Allow the cake to cool down completely at room temperature. Now loosen the sides of the cake pan with a knife. Place an inverted plate over the cake pan and invert the pan and tap . Gorgeous upside-down pineapple cake is ready to slice !

Recipe Notes:

• I have used fresh Pineapple in this recipe, you may use canned fruit as well.
• The same recipe can be used with fruits like apples and pears .
• Brown sugar or refined sugar can be used instead of jaggery as a sweetener. 

This pineapple upside down cake is featured in the #138th #FoodieMondayBlogHop where the theme is #Pineapples

                             

 I hope you would love to try out this healthy and delectable Pineapple upside-down cake for yourself. If you do so , feel free to share your feed back with us. Follow us on #Facebook , #Instagram , #Twitter   and #Google+ for more recipes and new updates. 

For more pineapple recipes, do check the following posts from my blog

• Pineapple Halwa

                                   

• Pineapple Fried Rice

                                                  

• Pineapple Jam

                                    

• Pineapple Jam Tarts