Pineapple upside down cake has to be one of my most favourite cakes. However, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing, and once again, being faced with a fresh pineapple that was starting to go past it’s best, I actually couldn’t face another upside down treat! I know, it must be lockdown madness setting in, but there you go…

So I decided to get creative and add the twist of another of my favourite cakes…. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Lemon Drizzle… Aside from the sharpness of a LDC (Lemon Drizzle Cake) I love the almost crunchy crust you get with the lemon and sugar mix which is of course the drizzle. Not content with just Lemon and Pineapple, I wanted to add another dimension to the cake, and a quick look in the fridge confirmed…. Raspberries…..

To make this cake you need…

250g Self raising Flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
160g Sugar
200g Butter or Spreadable Spread like stork
3 eggs
Chopped Fresh Pineapple (I’ve failed as I didn’t measure this, but I would say the equivalent of about 3 chopped tinned pineapple rings)
12 Raspberries
zest of 1 lemon

For the topping
3 Dessert spoons of Granulated sugar
Juice of 1 lemon

Pre Heat your oven to 160c or gas mark 3, grease and line a loaf tin leaving an overhang of parchment paper at the short ends of the tin to help get the cake out.

Put all of the cake ingredients, except the lemon zest into a bowl and mix until you get a thick batter. It will look thicker than a regular sponge batter but you need this thickness to help absorb the juices that will come our of the fruit.

Stir through the Lemon Zest as evenly as you can.

Put a 1/3 of the batter into the tin and make it as level as you can. Then, place all the pineapple into the tin and cover with another 1/3. Now dot your raspberries into the tin and cover with the remaining 1/3 of the batter. Place into the oven for 40 minutes.

Check by sticking a skewer or knife into the centre of the cake, if it comes out clean, your cake is done! You may find though that the cake is still wet, this will be because of the juices coming our of the pineapple and raspberries. Your cake may need an extra 5-15 minutes in the oven.

Once cooked, leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then stab it a few times with a thin knife or skewer. Now mix together the lemon juice and sugar and pour over the cake, making sure some of the sugary juice gets into the holes you have just stabbed into the cake. Leaving the cake in the tin at this stage allows the crust to form at the edges of the cake.

Leave to cool completely before removing from the tin.

Enjoy!