More fruit is then lightly pickled and dressed with honey and chiles, providing a spicy but refreshing counter to the deep, sweet pork. I braise a pork shoulder, Filipino adobo style, in a mix of garlic, bay leaves, soy sauce and vinegar teeming with caramelized pineapple. If you’re in need of a similar escape, buy some extra fruit and pair the cake with my Pork and Pineapple Adobo Roast With Pickled Pineapple Salad. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. I’ve already had a few slices sitting at my apartment complex’s pool, and it’s getting the job done perfectly without a flight to the tropics. Eschewing the traditional maraschino cherries leaves me room to pile on the pineapple so it’s, fittingly, in equal proportion with the cake underneath.

It’s a cake that uses precut fruit from my grocery store’s deli section and a tube of almond paste to perfume the crumb with that cherry/almond essence you expect from other summertime fruits like peaches, nectarines and plums. That was definitely my aim in developing my latest recipe, a Summertime Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. Maybe this is why I’ve been craving mango, pineapple, coconut, papaya and other tropical fruits more than ever these past few weeks - anything to bring the tropical getaway to me without a costly plane ticket and the headache of travel. Despite my desire for a vacation - particularly after the cold, gray start of this year - where I can just sweat and eat delicious fruit and sip cold drinks for days on end, it’s not in the cards for the rest of my 2023 calendar.

Deli tropical cutie