Crumb Cake with Pineapple & Custard

This Sunday in Melbourne is of course Father's Day! We had 15 people over for lunch and i was tasked with making two desserts! The first dessert was easy - the always satisfying torta di chocolate but for the second dessert i wanted to try something a bit different. In my daily perusal of Eats on the iPad app Flipboard, i came across the recipe for a Hazelnut Plum Crumb Cake on Smitten Kitchen. Of course plums aren't in season in Australia at the moment so i opted to make a tweaked pineapple version (also happens to be my dad's favorite fruit).

This cake is similar in ways to the crumbles that we're familiar with here in Australia, except with a base that makes it easily slice-able! And the best part is that the custard is baked IN to the cake so there's no need to dollop it on top! Unless you're feeling extra piggy today.

Raspberry & Pineapple Upside Down Cake

An upside down cake is a cake that once cooked, is flipped over and eaten, obviously, upside down. The allows you to make patterns and essentially glazes in the bottom of the cake pan before adding the cake mixture, which will look fantastic once turned over.

The one we're all most familiar with in Australia is pineapple upside down cake, an old favorite. Not wanting to meddle too much with tried and true form, i've opted to mix raspberries through the cake mix to bring an extra bit of tang to the table.

Bring on the cake sale!

Pineapple Fried Rice

I love fried rice! I could eat mountains of it. My favorite fried rice is actually the standard stuff you get in any westernized Chinese restaurant in Melbourne with the peas, tiny shrimp and little pieces of Chinese sausage. Yum!!! But Thai style fried rice is much more a meal on its own. The sweetness of the pineapple permeates through the rice, providing a depth of flavor along with the shrimp paste. And tacky though it may be, it just looks mouth watering seeing it piled into a pineapple bowl!

Ingredients

• 2 cups jasmine rice, cooked and then kept in refrigerator overnight
• 1 pineapple
• 3 long chillis
• 5 spring onions
• 1 medium bunch coriander
• 2/3 cup cashew nuts, crushed
• 1 tbsp dark soy
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp shrimp paste
• 250gm prawn meat 
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1egg

Method

Cut the pineapple in half lengthways.

Cut out the flesh as best as possible and chop into small chunks. Scoop out any remaining flesh and discard.

You should be left with 2 pineapple bowls and a bunch of pineapple chunks

Finely chop the chillis, garlic, coriander and spring onions, slicing a little bit as well for garnish.

Chop the prawns into large pieces.

Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat.

Add the chillis and garlic and stir fry until fragrant.

Add the prawns and par cook

Add the rice and stir through. 

Make a well in the centre of the rice and crack the egg into it and quickly stir through the rice.

Whisk the shrimp paste, soy and fish sauce together briefly.

Add the pineapple chunks, cashews soy, fish sauce and shrimp paste to the rice and mix through.

Taste for seasoning and add more soy if necessary.

Remove from the heat and fold through spring onions and coriander.

Serve in the pineapple bowl garnish with more spring onions and chilli.