The joy of baking a cake for a special occasion shows that simple things in life are the best, a personal touch makes things memorable. Despite the difficulty of having a time on my own with a newborn, i insisted baking Antoun’s birthday cake myself. This is how we are used to celebrate and i won’t change this routine.

A pineapple cake sounds perfect, we all love pineapple at home. To prepare the batter we need:

3 cups flour sifted

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted and softened butter

1 3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 cup milk

1/2 cup pineapple juice

2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180°C and prepare 9″ baking dish (greased and floured).

In an electric mixer, whip butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in the eggs and egg yolks one at a time adding the vanilla with the last egg yolk.

Add the flour and baking powder in small amounts, alternating with the milk and pineapple juice, mixing on low speed until the batter is well combined, scraping down sides and bottom of the bowl after each addition. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean.

Let it cool for at least one hour. Meantime lets prepare the frosting.

3 cups heavy cream

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup cream cheese (left at room temperature)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In the bowl of the electric mixer, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Add 1/3 of the powdered sugar and whip until stiff peaks form or your cream will be runny when decorating. Scrape into a separate bowl to whip the cream cheese with the remaining 2/3 cup powdered sugar and vanilla. Fold the mixture in the whipping cream.

Now the cake is ready to be decorated. You will need 300g of pineapple chunks (caned) for the stuffing. Divide the cake in two layers, drizzle from the juice of the pineapple can on both layers for a moist texture before putting the cream and pineapple chunks. Cover the whole cake with the remaining cream.

To make it look festive and up to the occasion i decorated the top with fresh pineapple, looking like flowers. It’s very easy to make them, follow the fool proof scheme step by step :

Slice off the top and bottom of the pineapple and peel it. Pop out the seeds on the sides. Slice the pineapple very thinly so that the slices are almost translucent. Lay them on a baking sheet lined with a parchment paper. Bake at 150°C to dry them out slowly. Timing will vary, i worked with a baby pineapple so i didn’t need more than 10 minutes before i transfer them to a muffin tin so that the edges curve upward in the shape of a flower. I let them sit to cool this way to retain the flower shape.

Add some of the pineapple stems to give it a realistic look. Enjoy the heavenly taste of this mouthwatering cake.

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