This is a bit before my time, but I have vague nursery memories of a friend of my grandmother making a version of this, which she would serve with a warm sauce made of pineapple juice thickened with (I imagine) cornflour. That I can do without, but I still think that it is perfectly all right to make this with canned pineapple rings. I feel it is slightly bad sport to start peeling and slicing your own pineapple.

I recommend going for the one in its own juice rather than in syrup, and I add some of the juice to the sponge, too. This seems to help make it light and fluffy.

I have found that the best way of keeping this swift is by baking it in my copper tarte Tatin tin; if you are using a regular cake tin, be prepared to add a few minutes to the cooking time.

Serves 8

Butter for greasing
2 x 15ml tbsp sugar
6 slices pineapple from a 425g can, plus 3 x 15ml tbsp of the juice
11 glacé cherries, approx 75g total weight
100g flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g soft butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs

Method

1 Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. Butter a tarte Tatin tin (24cm wide at the top and 20cm diameter at the bottom) or use a 23cm cake tin (neither loosebottomed nor springform).

2 Sprinkle 2 tbsp sugar onto the buttered base, and then arrange the pineapple slices to make a circular pattern as in the picture.

3 Fill each pineapple ring with a glacé cherry, and then dot one in each of the spaces in between.

4 Put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, butter, caster sugar and eggs into a food processor and run the motor until the batter is smooth. Then pour in the 3 tbsp pineapple juice to thin it a little.

5 Pour this mixture carefully over the pineapple rings; it will only just cover it, so spread it out gently.

6 Bake for 30 minutes, then ease a spatula around the edge of the tin, place a plate on top and, with one deft – ha! – move, turn it upside-down.

© Nigella Lawson 2007 Nigella Express: Good Food Fast, Chatto & Windus, published on September 6 at £25 (£22 from Times BooksFirst 0870 1608080)

Read The Times Magazine’s interview with Nigella, and find other recipes here

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