Fresh Cream Pineapple Cake/ Eggless

Baking eggless cakes for others is a nightmare for me. More than the size and decoration what I am worried about most times is whether the cake would rise sufficient enough. Even if it does rise can it hold the topping. Would it be spongy and yet sturdy? And lastly would it taste nice? These things hover my mind pretty often. When dear friend nandu rested the mammoth responsibility of making one such for her dear mama (maternal uncle) I was one excited and two jittery. 

Needless to say, I saved my face by packing off a presentable and simple cake. Looking at this cake one may wonder whats the big fuss about a simple cake topped with whipped cream and fruits. Well the challenge living in India especially mumbai is that the weather may never be supportive of your plans. And then we challenge the wether by offering to use whipped cream.

  I did not bother much about capturing step wise pictures as I did not have the nerves for it. But I will try to make up by detailing the steps in detail as much as I can recollect.

Ingredients

for cake

3/4 cup flour  sifted (Plain Maida)

1 tbsp corn flour

3/4 cup Butter

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup curd (regular dahi)

1.5 tspn baking powder

a pinch of baking soda

for topping

2 cups fresh cream
1 tbsp icing sugar 

1 cup canned pineapple

fresh fruits like cherries or kiwis for topping
white chocolate shards (peeled white chocolate curls)

Method 

1) Beat the butter, sugar and curd using a electric beater until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is slightly frothy. This will not rise or double like a egg based batter, so do not bother whisking too much

2) In another bowl, mix the flour, corn flour , baking soda and powder and seive the flour a couple of times

3) Add a little flour at a time and keep folding it gently. Do this until all the batter is incorporated.

4) Let the batter stand for about 5 min. 
5) Preheat your oven at 180c 
6) Line your greased and flour dusted baking pan with parchment paper.
7) Pour the batter and  place the pan in the oven.
8) Let it bake for about 25 min. Check in the centre with a spagheti or toothpick.
9) Transfer the cake to wirerack for it to cool down completely
10) Take the whipped cream in a clean glass vessel.
11) Add a litte sugar at a time . Continue to whip until it holds its shape about 8 to 10 min
12) Place this in the refrigerator until planned to be used.
13) Take the cake and cut it horizontally into 2 parts
14) Place the bottom cake on the cake board. 
15) Pour some reserved syrup from the pineapple can to moisten the cake
16) Chop some of the pineapples into small bite size pieces.
17) Cover the cake base with pinepaeapple pieces
18) Pour half of the whipped cream on top
19) Cover the cream with top cake 
20) Pour the remaining whipped cream on top and spread it our evenly to cover the top and sides using a spatula
21) Place the remaining pineapples  and other fruits on top
22) Cover the sides with white chocolate shavings/ shards

Tips

1) Emulsifying the butter and curd will be a task as unlike eggs or condensed milk that bind the ingredients well. You have to work hard to make them stay together

Decoration  Also seen fondant tiles with age and kolam embossings.