Artisanal Pineapple Cakes
These are handmade artisanal pineapple cakes. They are made with FRESH PINEAPPLES, no fillers and no preservatives.
I had the pleasure of travelling to Taiwan a year ago and fell in love with these cakes. I just can't get enough of them myself.
A bit of brief history...
Pineapples were grown in Taiwan as early as the mid-17th century. Apparently there are more than 50 varieties of pineapple. But the three main categories are 1) Golden 2) Cayenne 3) Spain. Cayenne is the best for these cakes and they are indigenous to Hawaii.
Exports of these pineapples were limited to Japan and Manchuria. During WWII, the industry went into a big decline as plantations were used for grains and metal for cans were short in supply due to the need for the war. The 1950s-1970s was when pineapple production and exports peaked once again, but when Taiwan transformed into a industrialized economy, the farm workers were drawn to the cities.
Some say that pineapple cakes have more than a hundred years of history but the surplus of pineapples in the 1970s, created a need to use up these pineapples and hence the popularity of the pineapple cake.