"TRULY TROPICAL" CAKE

Recently we discovered a fabulous Liverpool business, Childwall Food and Drink. They deliver fantastic fruit and veg boxes straight to your door at, what has to be said fantastic prices. Not one to turn down a bargain we bought ourselves a box and inside was a beautifully ripe pineapple. It's not something I would usually buy so I took the opportunity to bake this mouth wateringly moist banana and pineapple cake slathered with buttery caramel cream cheese frosting. I call it my "Totally Tropical" cake.

Totally Tropical Cake

For The Cake

200g Peeled, Cored And Chopped Pineapple
200g Peeled And Chopped Banana
225g Light Brown Sugar

2 Eggs
125g Soft Butter
100ml Sunflower Oil
250g Self Raising Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch Of Salt
1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Ground  Nutmeg

For The Frosting:

300g Icing Sugar

50g Soft Butter

125g Cream Cheese

3-4 Drops Buttery Caramel Flavouring

1. Get you oven on to 180 degrees (160 fan)  so it's all toasty warm ready for the cake batter.
2. Place the pineapple and banana in a bowl and mash together into a paste. I find the easiest way to do this is to just get your hands in and squeeze them together through your fingers. It's messy but it works better than a masher or fork and is a lot quicker (and fun!).
3. In a second bowl, beat together the sugar, eggs, butter and oil until well combined and add in portions to the pineapple andbanana beating as you go until a frothy mixture has formed.
4. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a clean bowl until combined and add to the wet ingredients a third at a time, gently folding through with a spoon as you go. Slowly mix together until any streaks of flour have disappeared. Make sure you catch all the flour from the bottom of the bowl.
5. Grease a 20cm deep cake tin and pour in the cake batter and place in the oven and bake for around 40-45 minutes until your lovely skewer comes out clean once inserted. Check the cake around 25 minutes in and cover with foil if you think the cake is browning to quick.  
6. Remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for ten minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool completely. 
7. Whist the cake is cooling beat together the icing sugar and butter until it comes together into a paste like consistency. Add in the cream cheese and caramel flavouring and beat gently until a smooth  frosting forms. Don't over beat or the frosting will go too runny. If it does go to runny add some more icing sugar to thicken it up so that it won't run off the cake when spread onto it. 
8. When the cake has fully cooled, spread the frosting all over the top and sides of the cake and smooth out with a spatula. Decorate the top of the cake with the sprinkles of your choice.

The cake will have the taste of a banana cake but with a sweet bite to it coming from the pineapple. The buttery caramel frosting really compliments the flavours of the cake.

Get all Carmen Miranda on your bad self, whip out your fruity headdress and shake your maracas around the kitchen before diving head first into your cake.

It truly is a tropical treat!