Oh Madam! Pineapple & Coconut Sponge Pudding

With nothing else to do on a relentlessly rainy Sunday, I looked wistfully around the kitchen in search of something productive to do. Finished editing the vegetable drawers in the fridge, my eyes settled on the fruit bowl. I'm afraid the lemon's had it and the pineapple ain't so good looking either... you know a pineapple is ripe enough to eat when it will give up one of it's centre leaves with ease, but when all the leaves have gone grey and the fruit is starting to develop signs of outer bacteria there's only one thing for it before it hits the bin. Out with the excellent Fyffes pineapple corer and give it a whirl. To those of you who know nothing of which I speak, the pineapple corer is a work of culinary engineering genius. Simply cut the top off the pineapple and push the serrated tube over the core of the fruit with a clockwise motion. Then just wind away until you hit the bottom and pull the whole lot out, ready cut into a beautiful pineapple spring. Pop the handle off, unload the spring of fruit and push the core into the bin with a wooden spoon handle. Bravo!

Anyway, this baby was like a good cheese, pretty manky on the outside but ripe and delicious on the inside and as sweet as a schoolboy's spangle. "I'll make a sponge pudding out of it", says I, "reminiscent of school dinners, with coconut in it". And I have to tell you, it was delicious - really good - greater than the sum of it's parts good and I promise you'll have this in the oven in less than ten minutes. So here goes:

The Fixings
110g Self raising Flour
110g Caster Sugar
110g Baking Margarine (Stork) at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
3-4 tablespoons dried coconut
2 tablespoons Coconut liqueur (or Canned Coconut milk if you don't have it)
1 really really ripe pineapple

The Prep
Sift the flour into a baking bowl with the sugar and baking powder. Add the eggs and margarine and roughly bind with a spoon. Add the dried coconut and whisk with an electric mixer until really smooth, adding some coconut liqueur or milk if it is too dry.
Meanwhile put the pineapple in the bottom of a greased baking dish and add the coconut liqueur or coconut milk. If your pineapple isn't ultra-ripe and naturally sweet, add some sugar as well.
Spoon over the sponge mixture and roughly flatten over the pineapple - don't worry about going all the way to the edges - the sponge will rise well and spread.

The Final Act
Bake in 170c or 325f oven for about 30 mins or a toothpick comes out from the highest part clean.

Points to consider:
This can be a delicious Sunday dessert served with custard or some whipped cream and will be made in no time. The sponge mix also works beautifully (without the coconut but with a few vanilla drops) on top of apples, sweetened to taste. However, if you wish to really blow their socks off, try making individual puddings using a whole ring of pineapple, topped with sponge mixture and baked in a 4 inch ring, served with some pina colada ice cream, the recipe for which I will post soon. Enjoy!