It seemed so comforting to make this wonderfully rich, sweet cake as we got pelted by snow and ice earlier this week. It’s a messy cake to prepare: lots of sifting of flour, powdery confectioner’s sugar, brown sugar and tons of butter. Sometimes I use equal amounts of light-brown and dark-brown sugar (for ease of preparation weigh the two sugars to equal 430 grams or 14 ounces instead of packing them into 2 measuring cups).
The topping of brown sugar is mixed with melted butter and pineapple juice from the canned pineapple rings that are put on top. After unmolding the cake from the tube pan put it on a large, rimmed plate to catch all the syrup that’s produced in baking. You don’t need anything else to serve with this cake unless you want to gild it with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream.
Ingredients
- 8-ounce can pineapple slices in juice
- 2 cups plus 4 tablespoons (4 ½ sticks) butter, at room temperature, plus extra butter to grease the pan
- 2 cups (or 430 grams) light brown sugar, packed
- 2 cups (290 grams) sifted(before measuring) confectioner’s sugar
- 6 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups (250 grams) sifted (before measuring) all-purpose flour
- 8 Maraschino cherries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Very lightly grease a 10-inch tube pan with stationary bottom.
- Drain the pineapple and reserve the juice.
- Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a saucepan or microwave and pour it into the bottom of the tube pan. Drop the brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of the reserved pineapple juice into the melted butter-sugar mixture. Stir until mixed well and nearly dissolved.
- Lay the pineapple slices over the sugar mixture in the bottom of the pan. Place a cherry in the middle of each pineapple round.
- Beat the remaining butter (4 sticks) with the confectioner’s sugar in the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts.
- Resift the flour and gradually add it to the creamed mixture. With the mixer on low speed, blend the flour until thoroughly incorporated. Drop by large spoonfuls over the pineapple and sugar mixture, smoothing the top.
- Bake in the oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove the cake to a rack to cool for 10 mines, and then invert it onto a serving platter or cake stand.
- The cake will keep for 2 to 3 days in a domed cake stand on the counter.