Pineapple Dessert Cake

Although Mum is adamant that trees shouldn't be planted in straight lines she always comments when we drive past John Tucker Park in Paterson NSW that it looks inviting. Time for a pineapple picnic!

Best of the (Butter-White Wings) Bake-Off Recipes, selected and compiled by Trevor Wilson 1969 Sydney

Pineapple Dessert Cake

100g butter; ¾ cup castor sugar; 2 eggs; few drops lemon essence; 2 cups self-raising flour; 1 tsp mixed spice; pinch salt; ¼ cup milk; ¼ cup pineapple juice drained from 425g can crushed pineapple

Topping: ½ cup shredded coconut; ½ cup brown sugar; 1 cup drained crushed pineapple; ¼ cup melted butter; 10 glacé cherries; 50g blanched almonds; 300ml cream, whipped

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add lemo30cmX18cmn essence. Sift flour, salt and spice and fold into mixture alternately with milk and pineapple juice. Put in a buttered lamington tin and bake 30 to 35 minutes in moderate oven. Cool slightly before removing from tin.

Topping: Combine coconut, brown sugar, drained pineapple and 1 ½ tblspn melted butter. Spread over cake. Arrange cherries and almonds on top and brush with remaining melted butter. Set griller to medium heat and grill approximately 10cm from heat until top is bubbling and almonds toasted. Serve hot with whipped cream or cold decorated with piped cream around edge.

John Doidge Tucker was born in Paterson in 1852. He was a horticulturalist and donated land for an extension to the town's riverside park in 1939. What a lovely leafy legacy for a community!