Pineapple Polenta Upside-Down Cake!

Print Print | Print Email this to a friend | February 5, 2009
Filed Under cake, cookbooks I love, recipe

Recently I participated in a benefit auction for one of my favorite charities, the Children’s Heartlink. We auctioned off a “celebrity” chef bake-off to be held at General Mills test kitchen. Assembled were a team of my favorite pastry chefs in the Twin Cities as the coaches and some heavy hitting celebrity judges. Dr. Jim Rice bought the event and invited 20 of his friends to join him for a great evening. The pastry chef coaches came up with recipes, were allowed to talk the team through the process, but weren’t allowed to touch anything. My team was a blast, they had a great time and produced a gorgeous dessert, which got them second prize!

My friend and exquisite pastry chef, Michelle Gayer’s dessert won the gold! She is the chef/owner of the Salty Tart in Minneapolis (co-author of Charlie Trotter’s Desserts) and her dessert kicked A–! It was a pineapple polenta upside-down cake with caramelized macadamia nuts. I meant to ask her for the recipe, but she was off to Disney World with her family. Well, great minds think alike and it turns out that Johnny Iuzzini has a dessert that is just like it in his new book Dessert FourPlay. While I wait to get Michelle’s recipe I decided to give Johnny’s a go. Two world class pastry chefs’ version of a classic!

Pineapple Polenta Cake by Johhny Iuzzini:

For the pineapple:

1/2 cup (100g) sugar

pinch coarse salt

1/4 ripe pineapple

For the cake:

4 tablespoons (57g) unsalted butter, softened

7 tablespoons (85g) sugar

1 large egg

2 large egg yolks

1/3 cup (42g) all-purpose flour

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (45g) yellow cornmeal

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

For Spiced Pineapple Sauce:

2 cups pineapple juice

1 ounce (28g) fresh ginger, cut into thin slices

1/3 cup (80g) brown sugar, packed

7 whole cloves (Johnny called for 15 and I wanted it to be a little more subtle)

1 cinnamon sticks (Johnny called for 2, but I have “red hot” cinnamon so I reduced the amount)

special equipment:

4 Small Flan Rings (3 1/4-inches) – I used my English Muffin Rings

Start by wrapping the flan rings with foil, bringing it up around the bottom and outside of the ring. See picture below. Place wrapped rings on a baking sheet.

To make the caramel, heat the sugar, coarse salt and 2 tablespoons of water in a sauce pan.

Cook over high heat and do not touch pan until the sugar starts to caramelize.

Once this happens you should remove from heat and swirl around in the pan. Once the sugar turns color it cooks very quickly and will burn if not removed from heat.

Spoon the caramel carefully into your prepared molds.

To prepare the pineapple, remove the peel, then quarter, cut out core and and eyes. Cut one of the quarters into 1/2 inch wide slices.

Cut those to fit into your molds, place over hardened caramel.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Prepare the batter for the cake:

Cream together the sugar and butter, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and yolks, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each.

Whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Add to the wet mixture and mix at low speed until smooth, scrape the bowl as needed.

Divide the batter between the molds and smooth out with a small Spatula.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of your molds. They should be light golden in color and set when tested with a toothpick.

Remove from oven and immediately run a knife around the inside edge of the ring. Invert quickly onto the plate or the caramel will reset and stick to the foil.

I served it with the spiced sauce and a pineapple sorbet! (The sauce is so simple, just put all of the ingredients in a sauce pot and simmer until it is the thickness of maple syrup. this takes about an hour. Strain, cool and drizzle!) The spice was a wonderful compliment to the sweetness of the caramel and pineapple. I love the addition of the cornmeal as well. It gives the cake more body and flavor than the pineapple upside down cake of my past!

Here are the pastry chefs and judges from the Children’s Heartlink event:

(Back row: Kevin Ryan (Betty Crocker Why It Works), Khanh Tran (pastry chef at Cosmos), Moi, Belinda Jensen (Kare11 news), Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods). Front row: Rita (Michelle Gayer’s pastry sous chef from the Salty Tart), Marjorie Johnson (The Road to Blue Ribbon Baking) and Sue Zelickson the diva of the culinary world in Minneapolis!

Here is my awesome team “Better than Hospital food!” Yes, they are a bunch of Doctors and budding pastry chefs! We made a version of this pudding, but added a layer of bittersweet ganache!

Now I fly off to VEGAS with my friend Jen. I have a list of restaurants and pastry shops that is going to keep us quite busy and very happy. When I return I will try to get Michelle’s recipe!

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Comments

28 Responses to “Pineapple Polenta Upside-Down Cake!”

02/5/09 12:02 pm	Sue from Atlanta said... Oh My….pineapple upside down cake…my family never wants to hear that ever again…I wrote a blog about it last year..When I was in high school I won the “Home Econmics Student of the Year” award by baking this cake in a contest….I got a trophy from Crisco too!! what they didn’t know was that I made it using a box of Jiffy Cake Mix….doctored up ofcourse…
02/5/09 12:23 pm	zoe said... Hi Sue, That is an awesome story! Thanks, Zoë
02/5/09 12:57 pm	Elle said... Looks wonderful! Congrats on scoring a second place win. And have fun in Vegas! Eat a lot!
02/5/09 6:14 pm	Dragon said... I just love your take on this yummy classic. You never cease to amazing me.
02/5/09 6:47 pm	May said... Spiced pineapple, sounds great! I hope to make this cake soon (reminds me I should look for yellow cornmeal).
02/5/09 7:25 pm	Sarah Jackson said... Woah…comfy, tropical, delicious! -Sarah
02/5/09 9:40 pm	Monica H said... Found your blog several weeks ago and I love it. I also LOVE pineapple upside cake! And yours looks amazing.
02/5/09 11:56 pm	joey said... Oh wow! This is definitely a cake from my past — the first cake I ever learned to bake and to this day still my dad’s more requested baked good from me It has a special place in my heart This version with the cornmeal sounds awesome! I can taste in my mind how good that would be! Goes without saying that I am bookmarking this recipe post haste!
02/6/09 5:40 am	CookiePie said... LOVE pineapple upside down cake — and the addition of cornmeal sounds wonderful! I love that everyone gets his/her own too
02/6/09 11:47 am	Cakespy said... Not only does this look like a tasty turn on a sometimes kitschy recipe, but they’re also freakin’ adorable! And, enjoyed in such good company. Well done!
02/6/09 9:19 pm	Andrea said... Wow, that looks so amazing! I love the idea of polenta and congrats to your team for taking 2nd!
02/7/09 1:04 am	cakebrain said... oooh! that looks delicious!
02/7/09 3:10 am	gastroanthropologist said... Looks delicious and fun to make! I’ve always loved the desserts from Trotter’s.
02/7/09 2:31 pm	Miss T said... Looks fabulous! As a true lover of both cake and kitsch, I have the NordicWare pan that makes individual upside down cakes. This might be hard to resist!
02/8/09 12:45 pm	Koko said... This looks absolutely wonderful. I’ve just found your blog and I’ll be adding it to my blogroll!
02/8/09 7:04 pm	Beryl said... Pineapple upside down cake was the my mom’s biggest baking fail and shook her confidence- which I’ve been trying to mend ever since. This might be the recipe to do it! Bought your book and made my first loaf (ever) today. It came out perfectly and I am so excited! Thank you, thank you for writing that book!
02/9/09 7:16 pm	euripide said... What is the cooking time? they are in the oven right now and I do not see it
02/9/09 8:28 pm	zoe said... Hi everyone, Thanks for the lovely notes! Sorry it took me so long to get back to you, I’ve been in Vegas! Hi Euripide, So sorry for that omission, especially because I tested the baking time twice. His instructions said something that just didn’t pan out for me. I’ve corrected my post and I hope your cakes came out well! Enjoy! Zoë
02/10/09 9:37 pm	Jude said... Thanks for sharing this recipe. Sounds amazing and I’ve only browsed through Iuzzini’s book.
02/10/09 11:53 pm	cakebrain said... I always love your step-by-step pics! looks yummy!
02/11/09 8:18 pm	Hayley said... These look amazing. I must try these soon. Thanks for sharing!
02/18/09 7:28 pm	Olivia said... This looks wonderful! I would’ve never thought to use polenta and pineapple together.
03/9/09 10:17 am	Pineapple Upsidedown Cake at An Exaltation of Larks said... [...] sometimes. I know everyone has their own favorite version. This one is quite good, as are these individual ones made in ramekins, but I’m always trying out new recipes – who knows, it may be better than [...]
03/20/09 8:41 am	Beth Plaetz Lori said... Thank you again Zoe for sharing your talents and creativity to make this event happen!! I just love your site… it so inspires me!
03/28/09 3:37 am	Sharon said... Hi Zoe, I don’t have individual cake moulds & my oven is a basic model round one..may I use a 9” cake pan or an 8” pan or a 7 cup loaf pan? Will it work? Would love to try this recipe out, thanks.
03/28/09 1:39 pm	zoe said... Hi Sharon, Absolutely, You can bake it in either pan. Just keep an eye on it when baking to make sure you don’t over bake. I’d say to test it after about 15 minutes. It may require more time if it ends up being thicker. Enjoy! Zoë
04/1/09 1:35 am	Sharon said... Dear Zoe, Thanks a bunch for responding, it got me sooo excited!!! Just one more doubt, we don’t get to buy yellow cornmeal where I live..will normal cornmeal/cornflour do? Will it tamper with the flavor? Thanks.
04/9/09 8:59 am	John Stacy said... Zoe – thanks for sharing the recipe. A few years ago I stopped at hole in the wall BBQ place that served a pineapple upside-down cake made with a pumpkin polenta base. It was amazingly moist and tasty. Alas they had a fire and went out of business before I could get a copy of the recipe. I’ve been trying to recreate it for some time and this recipe has inspired me to try again.