Pineapple Gateau

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 Mould by Tupperware arrived as my birthday gift from my mom. Thank you, Mom! When I couldn’t visualize a Chocolate swirled cake in flower mould, 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 in 1:1 ratio but replaced in 1: 3/4 ratio. I also reduced the milk to 1/4 cup. Since I changed both butter & sugar component of the cake, so 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 hrs 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 assembling. I used whipped cream by Rich’s this time as we do not get good whipping cream in India. I kept the assembling also very simple, just some chopped pineapple pieces tossed in whipped cream for filling & frosted with whipping cream on top. I chose to pipe some design on random to hide my frosting flaws. :) Smart Alec!

The cake rose well, however, I made the estimate incorrect & my pan could accommodate atleast 2 cups of flour batter. So the cake was not very high. But rather a cute small flower :) The assembling was much more easier & successful than my earlier attempts. I didn’t know how to give a smooth finish to the top, some bloggers spoke about using knife dipped in hot water, some about dipping in cold water. I wasn’t sure so I let the imperfections be there. The engineer, read hubby, contributed by designing 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!

Print Recipe

Pineapple Gateau

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.

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time40 mins

Total Time50 mins

Course: Baking

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.

Notes

Add milk by 1 tbsp at a time if extra required.