Eggless Pineapple Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting

Ever since I was first successful and satisfied with my eggless cake, I've been excited to try other recipes as well. The base remains the same and with simple modifications, we can create so many different varieties!

After the great success of Mother's Day came the occasion of Father's Day and below are the pictures of the cake I baked then (I know I'm too late to post here but well better late than never right?) which was a super hit as well.. Everybody absolutely loved it! Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to take a good cross sectional picture! But I atleast got one this time!!

This is also an incredibly simple recipe and I hope you guys give this a try.. Do let me know your feedback in the comments section below.. Happy cooking

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 1 cup hung Yogurt
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 ¹/₂ tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 2 tsp Pineapple Extract
• ¹/₂ cup Oil
• 1 ¹/₂ cup All Purpose Flour (Maida)
• 2 tbsp Semolina/Sooji
• ¹/₄ cup Warm Milk (I used half and half; regular milk can be used as well)
• 3-5 drops of Yellow Food Color (Optional)

Whipped-cream Frosting:

• 1 ¹/₂  cup Heavy Whipping Cream
• ¹/₄ cup confectioners sugar
• ¹/₂ Pineapple Extract

Cake Assembly:

• 1 can of sweetened Pineapple - Chunks

Method:

Cake:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit/180 degrees Celsius.
• In a mixing bowl, mix the hung yogurt and sugar; beat well.
• Add baking powder n baking soda, mix well and let it stand for 5-10 minutes. The mixture will bubble up.
• Add pineapple extract and if using food color, add it as well and mix well.
• Add oil and mix well.
• Add the sieved all purpose flour and Sooji and mix to combine; do not over mix.
• Finally add 1/4c warm milk (I used half and half; regular milk can be used as well) and mix well.
• The mixture should be of dropping consistency.
• Pour in the prepared tin. (I split the batter into two tins for the sake of incorporating more layers..)
• If you are splitting into two tins, bake for 20-25 minutes - or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
• In case you decide to choose the single tin method, the baking time will increase by about 10 minutes; total bake time of 30-35 minutes (or of course until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean).

Whipped-cream Frosting:

• Before starting with this process, I'd like to share a few tips that'll help you get perfect frosting each time:
• Try to work during cooler times of the day (either early mornings or evenings).
• For best results, use a stainless steel bowl.
• Keep the beaters, the bowl and the whipped cream in the freezer for 15 minutes just before beginning to make the frosting.
• Your heavy cream should have atleast 35% butter-fat content. The frosting wouldn't hold well if the fat content is less.
• Add the whipping cream in the mixing bowl and using either a stand mixer or an electric beater, start at medium speed and gradually increase to high speed.
• Keep beating continuously until you reach soft peak consistency. Soft peak stage is when the cream is no longer in a liquid state and when you lift your beater, it would form a peak but it wouldn't hold its shape well. It should NOT be dripping at all.
• Stop beating and add the sugar & pineapple extract. 
• Now, start beating again on low speed (until the sugar is incorporated) and gradually increase to high speed until the cream has reached stiff peaks consistency. Stiff peak stage is when you lift the beater, a stiff peak is formed and it holds its shape.

Cake Assembly:

• You can use the cake from the two cake tins as-is or you can split them into halves (if more layers is what your heart desires!). I did not split the cakes any further
• Drain the pineapple can (reserve the sugar syrupy water). 
• If the chunks are big, chop them into smaller chunks.
• Apply the sugar syrup (from that reserved from the pineapple can) on each layer and frost the layer with the fresh cream frosting.
• Now add few pineapple chunks (as evenly as possible to cover the entire layer).
• Cover with the next layer. Repeat this process if you have more than two layers.
• Now frost the cake to just make a crumb coat (yes crumb coat because we are going to cover the entire cake with rosettes the coating doesn't need to be perfect!!..).
• I used Wilton star tip and used a swirl motion to create the rosettes. I worked my way from edges to the center.

Enjoy!!