Starry Night Grape and Pineapple Cake with Pineapple Curd

La tristesse durera toujours. (The sadness will last forever)

~ Last words, Vincent van Gogh

Whenever Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment makes an appearance on my bedside table, I get slightly worried. It usually means that there's been too much going on in my life, I can't sleep well (hence the punishing read) and I'm simply....tired.

In my current state of mind, I found inspiration in Vincent van Gogh's painting, Starry Night. A prime example of my optimistic side trying to override the crushing voices in my head. We all have these moments, and please don't tell me that you don't. Starry Night, unmistakable and perhaps the most recognized Van Gogh painting, depicts the view outside his sanatorium room window at night although he apparently painted it from memory during the day. You see, being in a sanatorium does that to a person. Not that I'm speaking from personal experience... well, I can be funny-insane sometimes (my friends and family tell me so), but not to that point. 

My original intention was to create a 'zebra' cake, in hues of blues and yellows, full of those unmistakable swirls. Not just in terms of the frosting on the cake, but swirls inside the cake itself. A cake that cleverly presented concentric circles when viewed from the top but vertical stripes when cut into slices. The end result didn't turn out that way, but hey, that's life. You can only plan so much, but sometimes life takes you down a different path. I'll show you what I mean. You'll see that I'm not always a baking maestro after all, but that's really okay...I'm human. Next time I'll just make the batter less runny and use different ingredients for greater color contrast and see if it works.

For the original zebra cake, I thought about how to attain the blue and yellow shades - naturally. Any number of ingredients could have offered me these two colors but I picked black seedless grapes and fresh pineapple. Once pureed, the grapes offered a deep purplish-red  hue that turned blue with the addition of baking powder (good thing I remembered my chemistry lessons from long ago. But darn the chemistry too for not producing the reaction I wanted!). To the pineapple, I added turmeric powder to enhance the yellow color and also the sweet tangy flavor of the fruit. Come on, don't be a wuss, just dump in the turmeric! Your cake will taste better for your courage.

I baked this at night so the layers looked eeriely orange and grey here, 

but I promise you that these were actually yellow and blue!

No layers but yumm-azing nevertheless!

Despite the layers not showing up, the cake tasted moist and scrumptious due to the fruity ingredients. I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was to go over to Kate's blog, It's The Norm to look at her easy lemon curd recipe. I thought my cake could do with a pineapple curd topping to bring some sunshine into its life, and into mine. While you're over at Kate's, please do check out her attempt at my red dragonfruit ice cream recipe. It's such a joy for me to see somebody recreate this dazzling ice cream and enjoy it too! Kate currently lives in Brunei, by the way, so she can easily buy dragonfruit the same way I can. 

You'll be glad to know I wasn't the only person who wanted to turn this Van Gogh painting into something else beautiful, because it also inspired Don McLean write the hit song, 'Vincent' back in the 1970s. It came to him one morning while he was sitting on the veranda looking at a book about Van Gogh. As he studied a print of Starry Night, he realized that a song could be written about the artist through the painting. I remembered the first time I heard this song, it was on my uncle's vintage vinyl record player. I was all of 6 years old and I played it over and over and over again until one day a nasty gash appeared across the black vinyl and my access to Vincent was promptly curtailed. To this day though, I still remember the lyrics and it has become a song I always, always request whenever I've had the opportunity to chill out at a piano lounge. The many piano lounge singers I've encountered have all had 'Vincent' as part of their repertoire, could it be that it's a criteria to being a successful lounge crooner?

Of course, being the hipster that (I think) I am, I've moved on with the times. As such, I share with you this more recent rendition of 'Vincent' by Joanna Wang, she of the sexy-smooth-like-velvet voice, my lullaby singer of choice. 

Today also happens to be a public holiday in Brunei, we're celebrating the birthday of our King and Prime Minister, His Majesty Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. I know of hardly any Bruneian who hasn't met him in person. We are after all, only 300,000 people in this country and he does get out and about often. I think he still looks quite dapper for a 65 year old and besides, who doesn't like a guy in uniform?

Have a chilled out weekend!

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty!

(well, just in case he reads this blog)

Starry Night Grape and Pineapple Cake
Yields one 9in or 8in round cake

Ingredients:
Cake
1 cup caster sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup pineapple, cubed
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 cup black seedless grapes
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Lightly spray an 8 x 2-inch or 9 x 2-inch round baking pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment, and spritz again. Set the pan aside.

2. Place the pineapple cubes in a blender, add the turmeric and blend into a puree. Strain into a bowl to remove any hard bits or lumps. Set aside.

3. Blend the grapes whole. Here, you have the option to strain to remove the skin or not. I chose not to because I like the flecked effect the skin gives to the cake. Set aside.

4. In the bowl of your mixer, blend the sugar and eggs on low speed until lightened, about 2 minutes. Blend in the oil and vanilla until well combined and smooth.

5. In a separate bowl sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Add this dry mixture to the wet ingredients above. Combine on medium speed 1-2 minutes or until the batter is smooth. Be sure to scrape down the bowl halfway through mixing.

6. Divide the batter into 2 equal portions (about 2 cups each). Into one portion quickly whisk in the pineapple and turmeric mixture until well incorporated. Into the other, whisk in the blended grape juice.

7. Now for the stripes. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of pineapple batter into the center of the cake pan. Next, spoon 3 tablespoons of the grape batter into the center of the pineapple batter. This causes the pineapple batter to spread out. Continue to alternate batters, in bulls-eye fashion until all batter is used. You will now have thin rings of each batter on the outer edges of the pan, thicker rings towards the center.

8. Bake the cake in the center of the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Top with pineapple curd just before serving and make swirl patterns with a small spatula.

Easy Pineapple Curd
75g butter (salted is better)
3 large eggs
75g caster sugar
125ml/1/2 cup pineapple puree (about 1 cup, cubed)
1/2 teaspoon powdered turmeric

Method:
1. Puree the pineapple flesh in a blender and add turmeric. Blend again and strain the mixture through a fine-meshed strainer. Set aside.
2. Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan, add all the other ingredients and whisk to a custard over a gentle heat. Let cool before completely before frosting the cake. If not used immediately, keep in the fridge and cover the top with a piece of cling film to prevent a skin from forming.