Nothing sparks memories more than a childhood dessert. I remember myself and my sister spending hours in the kitchen baking cupcakes, biscuits and scones. Not all our efforts were successful. But we were eight and nine, respectively, so our efforts were appreciated, or so we thought.
Mum ran the kitchen with military precision. Everything was cooked from scratch, we never ate frozen ready meals, and no deliveries ever entered our house.
Secretly, I longed for the kind of food I ate when visiting my friend after school on a Friday. His mum used to serve us a steaming bright orange liquid, ‘Heinz tomato soup’, served with stacks of heavily buttered sliced white bread. This was a particular favourite of mine. I knew my mum would never serve this. She of course made her own version of tomato soup, and without sounding ungrateful it never looked or tasted like its heavily preserved tinned counterpart.
Leaving home at the age nineteen, having my own money and the freedom to eat whatever I wanted, I did just that. Online ordering wasn’t a thing back then.
It was Friday night and I had just got paid! I chose to celebrate the weekend with my first Chinese takeaway. I knew nothing of Chinese food, but I headed into the restaurant with confidence and looked at the menu. There must have been over 150 different dishes, rice this, noodle that, sweet and sour everything. I had no idea what to order. I like chicken, so I read out some random numbers that contained chicken and hoped for best.
Heading back to my college digs, I was excited about my first takeout experience. Removing the lids from the mysterious foil containers I was hit by the sweet smell of yet another orange molten liquid. It’s safe to say number 065 on the menu maybe wasn’t the best choice. Not able to use chopsticks, (a technique I mastered many years later) I plunged a chicken ball into the orange lava. It tasted hot, spicy, sweet and orangey. I wondered how you make food that bright. Not finding my first experience enjoyable or tasty, it was many years before I ordered my next takeaway!
So back to the kitchen, the ‘junior chefs’ decided in advance for our afternoon ‘cooking session’. We had a limited repertoire of dishes. A firm favourite was upside down pineapple cake, with sticky glace cherries and thick syrup. Surprisingly, after many attempts, we became pretty good at it.
Now, all grown-up and thousands of kilometres away from my mum’s kitchen, I now have my own well equipped kitchen. Using the same basic recipe as back then, I’ve updated the recipe, substituting fresh pineapple for the tinned fruit and added a little spicy twist with stemmed ginger. I now manage to make a lot less mess and have lost my desire for bright orange food. Apron on, let’s spark up some nostalgia?
Upside down pineapple cake
Serves 8, prep time 35 minutes, cooking time 1 hour
Ingredients
For the base
1 fresh pineapple peeled and sliced
3 pieces stem ginger
8 glacé cherries
1 tbsp golden syrup
For the cake mix
350g self-raising flour
6 free-range eggs
350g margarine
350g caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp of milk
Few drops of vanilla essence
Zest of a lemon
Icing sugar to dust
Method
Grease and line a seven-inch deep cake tin. Arrange the pineapple around the edge and base of a baking tin, fill the centres with glacé cherry. Slice the ginger stem and arrange around the outside of the tin. Drizzle over the golden syrup and leave to stand. Finely chop the remaining cherries and ginger, ready to add to the cake mix.
In a food processor combine the sugar and margarine, and gradually add the eggs. Add a few drops of vanilla essence. Sift in the flour, baking powder and keep mixing.
Remove the bowl from the processor and gently stir in the chopped ginger and cherries. Pour the mixture into the tin and tap gently to remove any air pockets. Bake for about 1 hour at 200 degrees. Check the cake by dipping a clean knife in. Once the cake is cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Turn the cake onto a plate and allow to cool, add some lemon zest and dust with icing sugar. Serve with crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.
—Food photography and styling by Mark Setchfield. Follow him on Instagram @gasmarksix.
