Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

One of my favorite cool weather cakes to bake is pineapple upside-down cake.  It's fantastic warm and melts in your mouth.

I had this great recipe that I used for years however was unable to find it this round, and though I could have done it by memory I decided to look at one of my favorite recipe websites, allrecipes.com, and found this recipe that had over 400 reviews of positive feedback and almost 10,000 people have saved it to their recipe boxes, Anne's Pineapple Upside-Down Cake VII.  It uses a lot more brown sugar than I'm accustomed to using and called for a cast iron skillet which I do not have, however I thought I'd tackle it anyways, and of course give it my own little tweaks that I've incorporated over the years of baking them.


Pineapple Upside-Down Cake VII

Prep Time: 20 Minutes Cook Time: 45 Minutes

Ready In: 1 Hour 5 Minutes Servings: 12

"This pineapple upside down cake is made in an iron skillet. It's quick, easy and so beautiful."

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter 1 1/2 cups brown sugar 1 (20 ounce) can sliced pineapple

10 maraschino cherries 1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix

Directions:

1.

Melt the butter over medium high heat in the iron skillet. Remove from the heat and sprinkle the brown sugar evenly to cover the butter. Next, arrange pineapple rings around the bottom of the pan, one layer deep. Place a maraschino cherry into the center of each pineapple ring. Prepare the cake mix as directed by the manufacturer, substitute some of the pineapple juice for some of the liquid in the directions. Pour the batter over the pineapple layer.

2.

Bake as directed by the cake mix directions. Cool for 10 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a plate. Do not let the cake cool too much or it will be stuck to the pan.

My tweaks:

• As mentioned before I do not have a cast iron skillet so I just used a 9x13 glass cake pan.
• I used yellow cake not white cake.
• I soak the pineapple slices in about 1/3 of a cup of spiced rum in a zipper bag or a plastic bowl with a lid, shake them or turn them every so often to get even soaking, the longer the better, try at least an hour to overnight.  Still save your juice from the can!
• Replace some of the liquid called for in the cake mix recipe with the rum from the pineapple soak and then the rest with the leftover canned pineapple juice and finally water if you need more liquid.
• I place cherries in the voids around the edges of the pineapple rings and around the edges of the pans this way you get your full cherry satisfaction.

Flipping tip: If you've never made an upside-down cake of any sort the easiest way to make your flip without resulting in a pile of mess... place the dish you are turning your cake onto on top of the pan you baked in, and then flip placing your dish on to the counter, I like to give the pan a few pounds of the palm on the bottom in case there are any lingering pineapples or cherries, however if you do not let it cool too long it should not be an issue, then remove your pan and find a perfectly flipped beautiful cake.

I did somehow manage to think to take a quick shot of the cold
yummy leftovers before they were dished out.

This cake turned out absolutely delicious!  It looked so good and I didn't even think before we cut into it to take a picture of it fresh and hot for the blog I was sure I'd be writing.  But who can blame me, our mouths were watering and we were intoxicated by the smell. 

It melted in our mouths and the large amount of sugar formed the perfect crispy crusty wonderfulness around the edges of the pineapples.  I will definitely be purchasing a cast iron skillet to try to make this in as well.  One of my coworkers told me that is how her grandmother had done it and there is no other way to eat them.  I found that Amazon has a 12-Inch Pre-Seasoned Skillet that looks perfect at a great price and eligible for free shipping.  I cannot wait to try this again in that skillet!

If you've never tried to make a homemade pineapple upside down cake it's truly an easy cake to make and is so yummy it will have your friends and family in awe of your Domestic Goddess skills.  Give it a try and you will not be sorry.

Much Love!!

The Next Day

So yesterday was my birthday as I mentioned in my post Birthday Blessings 2011.  First business of the day, I tried to drive to Walmart to get a futon however realized that there was no way to fit it in my little car.  I then tried to drive home before my friend was supposed to be there, I find that half of Gainesville, ok I exaggerate, just a huge part of University Avenue had been blocked off for the Gator Homecoming parade.  I was thinking 'NOOOOOOO', I then proceeded having to drive down side roads for detours through residential neighborhoods.  This was a maddening thing, well could have been, but I kept hope that I'd eventually make it through this traffic jungle of people trying to find parking places, and people charging $5-15 a car to park on the grass of their yards, and my urge to just start bypassing the traffic and driving through yards and barreling through fences with my little car.  Luckily I had awesome music to keep me sane.  I finally found my way through to a major road, after an hour.  It took me longer on the detour to find a major road to get me home than it took me to drive to Walmart and go in and find the futons and talk to sales person and decide that it wouldn't fit in the car.  Oh and to stop and look at awesome televisions that I cannot afford.  Fortunately this detour was the only odd moment of the day.

My friend arrived and we had a great time.  He happens to drive a giant beautiful pickup and took me to get the futon - yay!  Definitely one of those times to take a moment and thank God for Southern men and their pickup trucks.  We hung out watched movies, ordered food in, took shots of the super delicious Pucker Vodka citrus... it was all great!!  I spent the day doing basically nothing and I loved it!  In the past when I've had a birthday party I always ended up having to do way more work than any birthday girl should have to.  So it was awesome that I could actually sit back and relax and just enjoy having company for the day and no drama either.  The older I get the more I just try to find that elusive zen state, and yesterday was pretty close.

Balue has decided the futon was purchased for him.

I woke up too early though, and went to bed late, and woke up again today too early.  So what did I do the day after my birthday?  Well I napped... fantastic!!

Much love!!

Birthday Blessings 2011

Today I celebrate the beginning of my 33rd year of my life!  I'm happy to see the beginning of a new year for me.  I've always liked getting older.  The older I get the better life seems to get, or the better I get.  Some years I have ups and downs and twists and turns but that is what makes it life.  How else would I learn and grow and become stronger if it were not for having to climb mountains.  I've never understood people who are grumpy and mad on their birthdays just because it's their birthday and for no other reason.  It's so odd to me.  It's not that I've always had wonderful birthdays, quite honestly the majority of my birthdays would have been a complete letdown if I had depended on other people to make the day special for me.  I know it's my day so I try to keep the mindset that whatever bullshit that may come my way that day is just negative energy trying to drag me down and I won't have it.  Well I try my hardest not to have it.

One year the person I lived with decided to not say happy birthday to me all day or get me a gift and acknowledge it at all, though 2 months before I had done what I could to make theirs quite special and got them a completely too expensive gift... I knew they knew it was my birthday, and I knew they were just trying to piss me off.  Why would someone do that on your birthday?  So I decided to not feed into petty mind games and didn't say a word about it and kept my cheery birthday tone all day.  When we were going to bed he quite grumpily finally told me happy birthday and mentioned he couldn't believe I didn't get mad at him.  I guess the plan to make my day a bad one backfired on him since he was the one who ended up irritated and not me.  I know what you are thinking... I can hear you all unanimously thinking expletives.  I tell this story to not throw anyone under the bus, but to give example of turning tables and not letting other people's issues get to you, and possibly their crap will turn on them.

Wether it's people who are bringing your birthday down, like you walk in and a drunk party crasher is standing there and has eaten almost your entire cake with their hand and then calls you a bitch (try to not jab them in the balls, it's hard to not do but I know it is possible), or you didn't receive a gift or get a really bad gift, I've had both happen more than once and I now buy myself a gift every year, if you have to spend it alone, or everyone truly does forget it's your birthday... whatever it is push through it.

Your birthday is the representation of a new year of your life and even if the day isn't butterflies and roses it does not mean that you do not have a  new year ahead of you that is likely full of wonderful surprises and blessings.

This year I have no idea what is in store for my birthday.  I am spending it with a friend that I have absolutely no expectations of, however I know I will enjoy the company.  I also get the day off of work.  I've bought everything to make a fabulous dinner, or maybe I'll go out.  Who knows!  But here is to hoping for a wonderful birthday to chalk up on the board!

Enjoy your life, make sure to celebrate your own new beginning in whatever way you can.

A fun Scorpio birthday greeting a friend sent me. =)

Much love and many wishes of happiness! xoxo

Cheese Fudge?

Yes I said it!  Cheese fudge!!!  How can you go wrong, cheese and chocolate, brilliant!  It's that time of year when people like to test their sweets making skills so I thought I'd share this recipe.  I didn't make this myself, however a coworker made some for our office Halloween bash.  It was different and good and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was different about it, I thought perhaps she had put cream cheese or sour cream in it or something.  This is definitely worth a try and will make people wonder what your special ingredient is.  Make it fun and have people try it and then ask them to guess what your secret is, they will be less likely to turn their nose up to it before trying, and they will be amazed at the power of the goodness of cheese.

Enjoy!
Much Love!!

She took the recipe from Paula Deen - Queen of Butter - Chocolate Cheese Fudge.

(The processed cheese that my coworker used was Velveeta brand.)

Servings: 6 to 8 servings
Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

1/2 lb processed cheese, sliced or cubed
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chopped nuts, pecans, walnuts
2 16-ounce boxes confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup cocoa

• Spray lightly the bottom of a 9x2 inch square pan with a nonstick spray.
• Using a saucepan over medium heat, melt the cheese and butter together, stirring constantly until smooth.
• Remove from heat and add the vanilla and nuts.
• In a large bowl sift together the sugar and cocoa. Pour the cheese mixture into the sugar and cocoa mixture and stir until completely mixed. The candy will be very stiff.
• Using your hands, remove candy from bowl and press evenly and firmly into pan. Because of the amount of butter in this recipe, pat the top of the candy with a paper towel to remove the excess oil. Place pan in refrigerator until candy is firm.
• To serve candy, cut into squares.

 Are you a fan of Paula Deen?  Amazon has a huge collection of her cookbooks, cookware, and accessories at discount rates and most qualify for Free Super Saver Shipping! Click here for your Paula Deen connection.

Insert Missing Blog Here

The mask I was supposed to be wearing,
but it was too hot and I just wore horns. =)

I know I know it's late... I had a super busy and tiring day.  Today was my work Halloween festivities that I've mentioned a couple of times.  Between finishing touches to decorations and then manning tour stuff it will wipe a girl out.  And let us not forget the food!  Good grief I ate too much!!  I had to come home and force myself to work out which actually did make me feel better.  Since then I've been sitting here in a sugar/too much food coma watching some television.  Anyways I couldn't let the day pass without at least saying something. I hope everyone has had a wonderful Tuesday!  Only 2 days and 2 hours until my birthday!

This is just the leftovers!!!

Much Love!!

Shop Amazon's Holiday Countdown Store

Halloween 2011 Ponderings

Happy Halloween!!  I’ve never been big on Halloween, even when I was a kid.  We didn’t really trick or treat or anything.  I think maybe one or two years my parents possibly took us to the mall to do the trick or treating there, one year I think I ended up at my school’s festival.  But besides that most years I spent Halloween at home, and I do remember even handing out the candy that I had obtained from school to the few kids that came by.  Oh and if I dressed up it was as a Punk Rocker, I loved Joan Jett when I was a kid, still do.  In my adult life I only handed out candy a few times, most years I’ll admit that I’ve just turned the porch light out and pretended no one was home, however it seems there are very few that actually trick or treat on the street anymore anyways.  Years ago I went to Halloween parties friends had, not because it was Halloween but because it was a party. 

At one of my old jobs the boss told us to dress up or not come in that day, so I dressed up for the sake of not hearing her moan that people didn’t participate.  I just used what I had, I had recently been in a wedding and had lost weight since it and the dress was falling off of me, I did my hair all crazy and was the bridesmaid from Hell.  That's the only real costume I've done since I was a 12 year old punk rock star, and it's been about 6 years since the bridesmaid outfit.  This year I’m in a whole new world.  My current job goes Halloween crazy.  Every section of the department decorates their area in mad fashion.  My area is Hell, another area decided to do a flip on us and do Heaven, there is a haunted carnival, a couple of non theme areas, and an area very dedicated to vampires.  I think the vampire crew is going to win, they went all out and the person who was the creative force behind it all is definitely not a Halloween decorating foe to be messed with.  Oh and everyone dresses up.  At least since my area is Hell I get to keep it simple and wear black or red and these silly devil horns.  Though I’m not a huge fan of Halloween the competitive spirit and the happy warm fuzzy feelings everyone has over it is very fun, it makes loving working here that much easier.  Though today is Halloween the competition and tours do not start until tomorrow.  Tonight I will be spending my Halloween dipping the rest of my cake balls that I mentioned in my last blog, Not So Lazy Sunday.

One thing I do love about Halloween is that it marks there are only 4 days left until my birthday on November 4^th.  Now that’s exciting!

Are you going to be dressed up partying your Halloween evening away or doing like me and hiding in the dark recesses of NoCandyHereville?

Much Love!  

I see that Amazon has their Halloween stock on sale! Stock up for next year!!  Click here for Halloween goodies!

Not So Lazy Sunday

Today I woke up and have been on the go since.  I haven't even had time to think of an actual topic driven blog for today.  Laundry, grocery shopping, dog walking, iguana petting and ball dipping.  The details of the actual ball dipping is a blog all of it's own to come at a later date.  Today was my first time making the ever popular new fad cake balls.  I baked two cakes for these balls for the work Halloween bash being held on Tuesday, because not everyone will be there tomorrow on actual Halloween or something like that.  I've made my first batch of balls and I'm over it, and I have a whole nother batch of balls to go.  I have ball delirium.  I need to hire a little unsuspecting person at my apartments and tell them if they dip my balls they get to keep some of the balls.  Now I'm just going to vegetate for the rest of the night try to forget the balls and the rest of the balls will be finished tomorrow.  The ball project has been fun but tedious.  Whoever thought of the cake balls was brilliant, for one they are yummy for two I just got to reference balls 14 times in one blog.  I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend and that Monday is kind to them.
 
 Much Love!!
 BALLS!(15) These are some of the ones I've made so far.