Dehydrated pineapple flowers are easy to make using the Ezidri dehydrator and are a wonderful way to add healthy edible decoration to cakes. The trick is to carefully bend the pineapple up around the edges halfway through the dehydration process.
Ingredients:
- 2 ripe bananas, mashed.
- 130g crushed tinned pineapple.
- 285g golden castor sugar.
- 210g self-raising flour.
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon.
- 170ml mild olive oil.
- 60ml pineapple juice, (reserved from the can).
- 2 eggs.
Icing:
- 60g butter, softened.
- 125g cream cheese, softened.
- 185g icing sugar.
- 8 fresh pineapple rounds thinly sliced.
Method
- To make the pineapple flowers…
- Place the pineapple rounds in the Ezidri Dehydrator and dehydrate at 55ºC for 8 hours. Halfway through dehydrating process, bend up the edges of the pineapple to make a flower shape and replace into machine for the remainder of the drying process.
- To make the cake…
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Lightly grease and line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper.
- Place the banana, pineapple and sugar in a large bowl and mix.
- Add the sifted flour and cinnamon. Stir together with a wooden spoon.
- Whisk the oil, pineapple juice and eggs together.
- Add the banana pineapple mixture and combine well.
- Pour into the tin and bake at 180ºC for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean.
- To make the icing…
- Beat the butter and cream cheese using electric beaters until smooth.
- Gradually add the icing sugar and beat until thick and creamy. Decorate the cooled cake with icing and dehydrated pineapple flowers.
