Sieve the plain flour with baking powder and cornflour. Separate the white and yolks of the eggs.
Beat the egg yolks with powdered sugar, essence and water, till it is thick. Beat the egg whites till it form stiff peaks. Fold the egg whites into the yolk mixture, alternately with the flour mixture, very carefully and without allowing the bubbles to subside.
Grease and line two, 7 inch round baking tins. Pour the batter into it. Level the cake and bake immediately in the preheated oven for 15-18 mins.. Remove the cake from the tin and invert on a greased butter paper, while its still hot. Let the cake cool completely.
To make the whipping cream icing:
Whip the cream and add the icing sugar gradually. Do a taste test to see the sweetness of the icing. Whip the cream till soft peaks form.
To make the praline:
Heat sugar in a non stick pan with 1-2 tbsp water, when it start caramelises, add chopped nuts. Make sure the nuts are coated well with the caramel. Pour the praline onto a baking/parchment paper. Let it cool. Crush them using a rolling pin.
Assembling the sponge/cake:
Drain the juice from the pineapple tin and keep aside. Cut the pineapple into small pieces. Use the syrup to moisten the cake.
If you want a taller cake, cut each sponge into two layers. Moisten each layer with the pineapple syrup. Spread icing on each layer. Sprinkle chopped pineapple pieces and crushed praline. Place another cake/sponge layer on top of this and repeat this process, till all the layers are done.
Spread the icing on the top and sides of the cake. Put the praline on the sides and top. Garnish with pineapple pieces and cream. Keep in the fridge for 2-3 hours. Serve chilled.
Notes
It is better to beat egg whites first and egg yolks later, if you are using the same electric beater for both. Make sure you fold in the batter gently, otherwise the cake/sponge will become hard. The texture of the sponge very much depends on the folding of the egg whites into the batter. Grease the tins and the baking/parchment paper generously. Since there is no fat used in the batter, the cake tends to stick on to the tin, if it's not greased well. Make sure you remove the cake from the baking tins, as soon as you take it out of the oven, otherwise the cake will shrink. You can skip the praline if you dont like it and just make it a pineapple pastry. You can use fresh pineapple also, but cook it with some sugar and use it. Make a sugar syrup to moisten the cake, if you are using fresh pineapple. To make sugar syrup, take 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water and let it boil, till the sugar melts. The cake remains very moist even if you have it straight out of the fridge. You can store it in the fridge for 2-3 days in an airtight container.