Story of a Pineapple Cake

One of the cakes I always wanted to try was the basic, most primitive of all (Pakistani) cakes, the pineapple sponge cake! Although this cake is the most easily and readily available in any and every bakery in Karachi, I had some difficult time looking for THE perfect recipe (or any recipe for that matter) on the internet, primary reason being that this cake is not that famous in the west. As fresh cream is preferred frosting in our side of the world, they rely more on butter cream frosting, which is a bit too sweet for our desi taste buds. So, anyway I decided to do some local media search and found a few recipes, mixed and matched and voila! I got a soft, spongy, moist pineapple cake…absolute delight! :)



Basic Sponge Cake:
Ingredients
4 Eggs
1 cup flour
½ cup granulated sugar (I dint want the sponge to be very sweet, you can put more sugar)
1 tsp Vanilla essence
1 pinch salt

Use everything at room temperature esp the eggs

Method:
1.  Before starting, an 8-inch round pan should be ready, greased and floured.
2.  pre heat oven at 180 degrees
3.  Beat all 4 eggs, until foamy n frothy
4.  Add vanilla essence, and sugar to the eggs and keep on beating
5.  The entire mixture should increase in volume
6.  In a separate bowl, sift flour and salt 3 times to let the air pass through
7.  Add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, every time mixing in with the hand (open the hand, all fingers apart 
      and mix, try not to loose volume of the mixture)
8. Once everything has been incorporated, immediately transfer the mixture to the pan and place in the center
     rack of the oven. Bake for 20-25mins
9.  Do not open the oven during this time, check after at least 20 minutes else cake will fall from the center.

Topping/Frosting:

2 (200ml each) fresh cream packs
4 tbsp icing sugar
1 tsp pineapple essence
1 tbspn sugar in 1 cup water (cook to form a dilute mixture)

Method:
1. Use chilled bowl and cream, start beating
2. Add pineapple essence and the icing sugar
3. Continue beating till soft peaks form.
4. Also, add pineapple chunks in half of the cream

Assembly:
1. After the cake is baked, let it cool down completely
2. Then cut the cake into half
3. Generously sprinkle the sugar mixture to moisten the cake
4. Apply the cream mixture on the once side and place the upper layer on top of it
5. Again, sprinkle the sugar water on the top layer
6. Cover the cake with the remaining cream w/o the chunks

And as who know me know that for me most of the desserts are not complete until covered with desiccated coconut, hence I used the same to put the final touches to my very first pineapple sponge cake! 
Do try and lemme know how it turned out!!
Happy Baking!!

oh yea as you can see, when i was photoshooting the cake, a lil theif came to lick the frosting :D i think the sight just made my day :)

         Yum!!