Eggless Pineapple Gateau is a layered pastry-style cake. It is fresh and delicious hitting the right notes. Keeping the assembly simple with pineapples, and whipped cream.
I was planning to bake an Eggless Chocolate Swirled Cake for my birthday but the 6-cup Bundt Pan was not gifted to me as expected, rather a Silicone Flower Mold by Tupperware arrived as my birthday gift from my mom. Thank you, Mom! When I couldn’t visualize a chocolate-swirled cake in flower mold, I had to go into thought-overdrive of re-working the recipe. Click, click,…….. & I decided to totally scrap the swirled cake idea & go girly :)
The autumn has just started & the color palette should be dark, mute & wintry, but Color is Back for this season! Yellow is coming across as a Core & Fashion Color for AW 12. So why should my cake be all dark chocolate, read brown! Enter – Eggless Pineapple Flower Cake with hints of yellow. :)
I started planning to make the Basic Eggless Sponge Cake recipe from Simple Home Baking by Sanjeev Kapoor, but just before baking realized that it didn’t suit me really well. I made a lot of changes to get my flower cake. The cake is simple & can be put together in a jiffy. It uses condensed milk in place of eggs. I deviated from the original recipe by skipping sugar in the recipe as condensed milk in itself is very sweet. I also replaced butter with olive oil, for replacing I didn’t do it in a 1:1 ratio but replaced it in a 1: 3/4 ratio. I also reduced the milk to 1/4 cup. Since I changed both the butter & sugar components of the cake, the creaming process also changed. I’m not even sure if the recipe is eligible to be called adapted from ‘XYZ’.
I baked the cake in the afternoon when Ved was at school & assembled it late at night when my world sleeps. I refrigerated the cake for 1/2 hour prior to assembly to make slicing easier & firmer. Again my cake was sitting in a cake dome absorbing flavors for 24 hours before being cut. I guess having young kids may not allow me to bake fresh, click & eat for some time to come!
The danger zone point was not baking but assembling. Since I obviously am not a pro (my past experiences of Eggless Rainbow Cake, Eggless Chocolate Truffle Cake, Eggless Blackforest Cake, etc., can reflect) & this was not even a simple round cake to work on but a flower shape! Oh Mom, how could you do this to me.. why did you gift me a flower pan? boohoo… hoo! My heart was galloping away before the assembly. I used whipped cream by Rich’s this time as we do not get good whipping cream in India. I kept the assembling very simple, just some chopped pineapple pieces tossed in whipped cream for filling & frosted with whipping cream on top. I chose to pipe some designs on random to hide my frosting flaws. :) Smart Alec!
The cake rose well, however, I made the estimate incorrect & my pan could accommodate at least 2 cups of flour batter. So the cake was not very high. But rather a cute small flower :) The assembling was much easier & successful than my earlier attempts. I didn’t know how to give a smooth finish to the top, some bloggers spoke about using a knife dipped in hot water, and some about dipping in cold water. I wasn’t sure so I let the imperfections be there. The engineer, read hubby, contributed by designing a nut-bolt-inspired center. :D
The cake was perfect in sweetness, it was soft, tender & moist. The pineapple brought in the right amount of tangy taste to it. Lovely & simple cake to bring in another year! A gift to myself!
Pineapple Gateau
Ingredients
for the cake sponge
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1½ tsp baking soda
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 200 gram condensed milk
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
to assemble the cake
- 6-7 canned pineapple slices
- ½ cup pineapple syrup (use the syrup which came with canned pineapple)
- 2 cup whipped cream
- 3-4 drops color optional
Instructions
for the cake sponge
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C. Grease & dust the 8 inch round pan or flower mould.
- Sift together flour, baking soda & baking powder 2-3 times.
- In a bowl, lightly beat condensed milk. Now add oil slowly and beat well. Add in the milk & vanilla essence.
- Gradually add dry ingredients. Mix well after each addition. Mix well for another 3-4 minutes till the batter is smooth & light.
- Pour the batter in prepared pan & bake for 25-30 mins or until toothpick comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in pan for 10 mins & then gently turn over on a wire rack. Allow to cool completely.
assembling the cake
- Transfer the cake on to a platter. Then using a long serrated knife, slice it into 2 layers.
- Reserve 2 slices of pineapple for decoration on top & chop the rest into small pieces.
- Place the chopped pineapple pieces in a bowl & add about 1/2 cup cream. Mix well.On the cake platter place a small dab of icing in the center.
- Now place the first layer on it. Make some holes into the bottom layer using a fork. Soak it in pineapple syrup. Then spread pineapple & whipped cream mixture over it. Place the top layer & soak it. Do a light crumb coat on the cake. Allow it to set in refrigerator for 30 mins. Spread thick layer of cream on top & sides of the cake. Use palette knife dipped in hot water to smooth out any wrinkles in cream.Decorate with reserved pineapple slices & pipe out any design if you wish.
- Refrigerate the cake till serving time. Serve chilled.
nice recipe and it is eggless- good one !