Bizcocho Dominicano (Dominican Cake)

Muffin Goddess's Note:

Tropical pound cake with pineapple. Posted for ZWT, untried by me. Adapted from the May/June 09 Hannaford fresh magazine. NOTE: don't preheat the oven -- this cake is supposed to go into a cold oven! Cook time includes cooling times for both cake and filling.

• Total Time: 4 hrs 55 mins
• Prep Time: 25 mins
• Cook Time: 4 hrs 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 12

FILLING

• 1 (18 ounce) container fresh pineapple rings , drained and sliced into 1-inch pieces
• ¾ cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

CAKE

• 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 eggs , at room temp (see note below)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• ½ cup orange juice
• 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 3 cups sifted cake flour
• 1 cup heavy cream
• powdered sugar , for dusting
• pineapple rings (optional, for garnish) or chopped pineapple (optional, for garnish)

Directions:

1. FILLING:.
2. Combine all the filling ingredients in a medium saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, until pineapple is tender and mixture becomes thick and jammy (this will take about 1 hour). Drain off any excess liquid and set mixture aside to cool to room temperature This part can be done up to 3 days ahead, just store filling in fridge until ready to use.
3. CAKE:.
4. Spray a 9 or 10" Bundt pan with Baker's Joy (or any cooking spray with flour in it).
5. Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Add the room temp eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in vanilla, orange juice and orange zest.
6. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add the salt and half the flour and mix well. Scrape the sides of the bowl, add the cream, and mix well again. Add the rest of the flour and mix well. Beat this mixture for 5 minutes on medium-high speed.
7. Spread 2/3 of the cake batter evenly in the prepared pan. Spoon the cooled pineapple filling on top of the batter, making sure that no fruit touches either the outer or inner edges of the pan (you want the filling to be totally enclosed within the cake and not visible from the outside once the cake is baked). Spread the remaining cake batter over the fruit layer, taking care not to disturb the ring of filling as much as possible.
8. Place pan on the middle rack of a cold oven, then turn oven on to 350 deg. F. Bake for about 1 hour, or until cake is golden brown and a tester comes out with only a few dry crumbs.
9. Cool cake in the pan for about 30 minutes. Gently loosen cake from sides of pan with a thin knife, then invert it onto a wire rack to cool. If any of the filling has sunk and fallen out of the top of the cake, arrange this over the top of the cake.
10. Allow cake to cool completely (approx. 2 hours). Dust with powdered sugar immediately before serving. Slice and serve with the chopped pineapple or pineapple rings, if desired.
11. Note about eggs: if you don't have time to wait for the eggs to come to room temp on their own, place them in a medium bowl and cover with very warm water. Allow them to sit in the water for about 5 to 10 minutes before using.

Reviews

[TiffanyBliss]

made this for my dominican coworkers birthday at the office. he said it was 'pretty close' to the real thing. i didn't put icing on it, he said that's the good part. the cake itself took a while to make. i wouldn't consider making it again unless i got a real mixer (all i have is a hand held) b/c you need to do alot of mixing. also, had trouble with the filling. after being on the stove for about 20 minutes, it quickly turned into a hard brown mass. it cooled and it was like a rock. didn't have another can of pineapple to try again so i used it anyway. put in in the middle of the bundt like the recipe said and it all fell to the bottom and stuck to the pan. so really, there was no 'filling' just crytalized/nurnt pineaple on the top of the cake. but the cake itself was pretty good. very sweet. i also needed to leave it in another 10 minutes but maybe that was just my oven.

[Chef #1386499]

A friend brought this to bookclub as dessert. She chose it because bizcocho was mentioned several times in the book. The book was The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Delicous and rich! I'm making it today for Rosh Hashana.