I always wanted to make a pineapple cake, but never had a good recipe to try out.
Our aunt makes a great pineapple cake, but the recipe is in German, thus needs to translated, plus the measures also need to be converted.

As I was perusing Pinterest, once again, I found an interesting recipe for pineapple cake ( no FAT at all), which I decided to try out.

The original recipe calls for more sugar than I would like to use, so I decreased it, hence the ingredients listed here as I used them.

If you love pineapple, and looking for a simple and delicious cake, this recipe is a winner.

This cake has a spongy texture, totally different from any traditional cake, thus very moist, and delicious.

Cake Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 20 oz can of crushed pineapple with juice
• Baking Spray with Flour (I used Baker’s Joy)

Cake Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.
3. In a small bowl mix the eggs with vanilla.
4. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients and mix for a minute.
5. Mix in the the pineapple.
6. Spray the bottom and sides of a rectangular baking pan  9 x 13 (I used glass pan) with Bakers Spray with Flour.
7. Pour in the batter, and smooth the top with the back of a spoon to spread is evenly.
8. Bake on the middle oven rack for 25 minutes.
9. Remove and cool off in the pan (while cooling, prepare frosting).

Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

• 8 oz. cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat), room temperature
• 4 Tbs. butter, softened
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups confectioners sugar

Cream Cheese Frosting Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter, to incorporate.
2. Mix in 1 tsp. vanilla extract
3. Gradually mix in the confectioners sugar, until smooth spreadable frosting is formed.
4. Ice the cake in the pan.
5. Refrigerate to firm up.
6. Use a sharp knife to cut the cake into serving pieces, as it is slightly challenging to cut due to its sponginess.

I used small chunks of pineapple, and very thin slices of Maraschino Cherries, to top off each slice.

Enjoy!

Your Thanksgiving dinner was a winner.  Everyone enjoyed the company and the delicious food.

However, now you have loads of leftovers to use up within the next 3-4 days.

Some people do not mind having the same food for another meal, but it gets boring after that, so we need to dip into our creative thinking.

I will provide few suggestions, in case you are too tired to search the internet for new recipes.

Adults and kids love leftover chicken, or turkey meat baked into Tetrazzini casserole.

Another quick “new” dish from leftover meat, is a batch of Potstickers.  You might need to purchase some Wonton wraps, in case you ran out of your previous stack.

Chicken or Turkey Pot Pie is an excellent way to use up a bunch of leftover meat, and turn it into a delish new

meal.

Turkey Croquettes are also  a fast and easy way to turn leftover chicken or turkey meat into a whole new dish.

Making some Turkey Salad, from that leftover Thanksgiving turkey, is the easiest dish ever.

Another easy idea is a turkey sandwich, on a fresh roll, with some stuffing and cranberry sauce all layered perfectly on top of some turkey meat.

Enjoy.

Please share your ideas for creatively using up leftovers from your Thanksgiving dinner.  Thank you.

It’s Thanksgiving time again, hence my sincere THANK YOU to ALL , for visiting my blog, reading the posts, leaving lovely comments, and spreading the word to your family and friends.

I truly appreciate your time and effort, since the more readers I have, the greater the drive to continue creating new posts.

I also would like to thank everyone for visiting and following me on Facebook , Twitter, and Pinterest. 

THANK YOU!

Now with the holiday shopping increasing, please note my blog also contains an icon for Amazon.com (top right hand corner).

If you click on it you will open up their website, then continue your shopping as usual.

Your shopping this way will earn points for me, which is a great plus for my blog, for which I am very appreciative, and thankful for your support.  

THANK YOU!

This year my Thanksgiving will be kind of low key, only my husband and I will celebrate it together, as our children and their families, are spending this holiday with the families of their spouses, or significant others.

We are looking forward to a “full house” at Christmas time, as it will be our turn to have everyone celebrating together with us in our home.

If you still are looking for recipes to bake something for this Thanksgiving, the above pictures are of a Pumpkin Roll, and very moist Corn Bread.  Click on these links to be directed to complete recipes.

If you prefer cakes over pies, you can give these a try as well:

Elegant, yet quite simple to make, Fruit Tart.

Apple Sheetcake, or Apple Torte.

Easy and very tasty, Jewish Apple Cake.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!!

Celebrating my daughter’s Birthday always involves  CHOCOLATE and salted CARAMEL…..she loves this combination.

I wanted to try a new recipe, rather than baking the same cake third year in a row, and found these very easy Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes, with salted caramel frosting, via picture on Pinterest.  

You may check out the recipe on the original site, but I will also list the ingredients and directions, since I made some minor adjustments.

This project could not get any simpler, since even though it requires some work from scratch, the main ingredient for the batter is Devil’s Food Cake Mix from a box.

Sometimes it is good to welcome in some simplicity to complete a special project, and to share it with all of you.

This is my daughter’s most favorite Birthday Cake, Chocolate Cake with Fleur De Sel Caramel. Click on this link to view the full recipe.

Now lets get back to the Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes.

Cake Ingredients:

• 1 box Devil’s Food Cake Mix
• 1 small box of Jello Chocolate Fudge instant Pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use Canola)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup sour cream

Cake Directions:

1. In a large mixer bowl, place all the above ingredients.
2. Beat on medium speed about 2 minutes, until well incorporated.
3. Line 2 cupcake pans with cupcake liners (I used 22 liners).
4. Fill each liner with about 1/4 cup of cake batter.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool off.

Salted Caramel Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup salted butter (1 stick)
• 1 cup dark brown sugar (I used light brown sugar)
• 1/3 cup heavy cream (whipping cream)
• 1/4 tsp. salt (I used 1/8 tsp)
• 2 -3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (I used 2  1/2 cups)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
• 22 chocolate chip morsels, for decoration (optional)

Directions for Salted Caramel Frosting:

1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter, on medium heat.
2. Add brown sugar, and heavy cream, and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves.
3. Add salt and vanilla extract (if using).
4. Once it begins to boil, forming bubbles, cook for 1 minute, continuously stirring.
5. Remove from heat, and cool completely (I poured it into two soup bowls for faster cooling).
6. Pour the cooled caramel syrup into a medium mixing bowl, reserving 2 Tbs to drizzle over frosted cupcakes.
7. Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing well until creamy.
8. Frost cupcakes.
9. Drizzle frosted tops of cupcakes with reserved caramel. I also placed a chocolate chip morsel on top of each frosted cupcake, as a special touch.

These cupcakes were one moist chocolaty goodness, topped off with a perfectly salted caramel frosting.

My daughter was very happy with this selection, even though it was not a close match to her favorite cake.

I love Maxine, and I am sure many of you do as well.

Whenever I receive some new Maxine updates from my friends, I instantly think of all of you, so I can share the fun.

This time Maxine will charm you with several of her  “Old Age” quotes, to brighten up your day.

After the Sandy and Rose Hurricanes, and the elections, we all could use  some cheering up.  Wouldn’t you agree?

Hmmm…..hopefully not too many of you are in her position…..

Interesting…..but what excuse would a non-coffee drinker use?

Now we know….

No comments here….I am still married to the first one….

OK.  What do YOU think about this?

I wish I had some more for you, but this is it for now.

Waiting for more Maxine emails, since it it always more fun to post something which others shared with me.