It seems like it’s been a while since I shared a recipe here. I’ve had this one in my back pocket for a while now - actually it was in early 2020 BC (Before Covid).  It seems now is the perfect time to share - since we’re all expert bakers and bread makers after more than two months in AD (Acute Disease). Do you like what I did there? 

Anyway, this recipe is a cinch! The hero ingredient is pineapple. Even though they’re not in season, I seem to be seeing pineapples in all the supermarkets lately. And by all, I mean my local Coles and Woolies Metro. 

The cake is a silky sponge with tropical pineapple and coconut flavours, topped with a vanilla cream-cheese frosting. It’s kind of like a Pina Colada in cake form. All you need to add is rum instead of (I don’t know actually what you could substitute rum for) but I guess you could just pour some over the cake before you eat it. You can thank me later. I’ll accept hugs post-AD. 

Ingredients

• butter, for greasing

• 280g (2 cups + 3 tbsp) self-raising flour 

• 120g (1/2 cup) coconut sugar    

• 120g (1/2 cup) caster sugar

• 100g (1 cup) desiccated coconut. 

• 100g (1 cup) walnuts, finely chopped.  

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 300g (about ⅓ pineapple) finely chopped fresh pineapple 

• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten

• 100ml (about 1 cup - a little less) vegetable oil 

• dried pineapple and/or edible flowers and/or chopped pistachio nuts, to serve

Cream cheese frosting

• 400g cream cheese, softened

• 200g crème fraîche (I used regular thickened cream)

• 200g pure icing sugar

• Scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean

Method

• Preheat oven to 175°C. Grease a 20cm x 30cm lamington tin and line with baking paper, leaving a little overhanging. 

• Combine flour, sugars, coconut, walnut and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl, add fresh pineapple, egg and oil and stir to combine. 

• Spread batter into prepared tin and bake until golden and cake springs back when lightly pressed (35 minutes). 

• Cool in tin (15 minutes), then lift out and cool completely on a wire rack.

• For cream cheese frosting, beat ingredients in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until smooth.

• Spread frosting over cake and top with dried pineapple, flowers and/or pistachio to serve.

Drink suggestion: Do I really need to tell you? 

I’d love to hear if that first bite takes you straight to a warm tropical island where ISO is not an issue.