Upside-down cakes always intrigued me, since the beauty of the cake is at the bottom of the pan rather than at the top, and revealed after it is fully baked and inverted. Fancy that?

Pineapple upside-down cakes are so colorful; bejeweled by maraschino cherries.

I call it a “double-decker” pineapple cake, because two upside-down cakes are stacked up to create the finished product.

Cream cheese frosting, and cake crumbs, were used as finishing touches to complete this cake’s decor.

I was inspired by Paula Deen’s recipe, but made several modifications to satisfy my own taste, thus creating a similar, yet different cake.

 Cake Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups cake flour (I used Softasilk by Pillsbury)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt
• 1 1/4 cup low fat buttermilk
• 14 slices of pineapple (2 -20 oz cans- there will be left overs)
• 14 maraschino cherries (about 1/2 of a 10 oz jar)
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter,melted
• Cooking spray (I used Baker’s Joy which has flour incorporated in it)

Cake Directions:

1. Place butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl, and beat until light and fluffy.
2. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.
3. Mix in vanilla extract, and set aside.
4. Use a medium bowl to mix flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder ( I use a whisk)
5. Mix in some of the buttermilk into the egg mixture, then mix in some flour, then buttermilk again and end with flour.
6. Mix all for a minute longer and set aside.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and place one oven rack in the middle of the oven, and the second rack just below it.
8. Place foil paper on the middle rack, where you will rest the cake pans to prevent any overflow dripping down to the bottom of your oven.
9. Spray bottom and sides of two 9 inch round cake pans with cooking spray, and flour  them, or use the Baker’s Joy spray with flour, as I did.
10. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of  brown sugar over the bottom of each cake pan.
11. Drizzle each with 1/2 cup of melted butter.
12. Arrange 7 slices of pineapple over the sugar-butter mixture to cover the bottom of each pan.
13. Place a maraschino cherry in the middle of each pineapple slice.
14. Pour 1/2 half of the cake batter over the pineapple in one pan, and spread the remaining half of the batter in the second pan.
15. Place cake pans over foil on the middle oven rack, and bake for 45 minutes, or until the toothpick test comes out clean.
16. Remove from the oven, and cool for 1o minutes in pan, on a cooling rack.
17. Invert cakes onto a cooling rack, and let them cool completely.
18. Once cooled, I inverted them again, and trimmed off the top of each cake, to make it flat for easier stacking.
19. Place one of the cakes, with pineapple on the top, onto a cake platter, and stack the other cake on top of the first one, also with pineapple on the top, since this will be the final top of the finished cake.
20. Prepare Cream Cheese frosting, and frost the sides of the cake.
21. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Cream Cheese frosting Ingredients:

• 8 oz. Philadelphia cream cheese (not Fat Free or even 1/3 less fat – this will make the frosting too thin)
• 4 Tbs unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. pineapple juice (left over from the canned fruit)
• 1 cup confectioners sugar

Directions:

1. Place the cream cheese and butter in a medium mixing bowl, and mix until well incorporated and creamy.
2. Beat in vanilla extract and pineapple juice.
3. Add confectioners sugar and mix well until smooth and creamy.

Happy frosting, and enjoy the delicious cake.

TIP:  I placed two pieces of wax paper over the cake platter, slightly overlapping at the center, before placing the cake on it for frosting, to prevent the icing from getting on the platter. Once I completed frosting the cake, I gently pulled out each piece of wax paper from under the cake, and discarded it.

Today was a very cold winter day, so my granddaughter and I spent our Saturday together indoors, doing lots of fun projects.

We both love crafts.  Her latest fascination is cutting with scissors, using glitter, and doing fun projects in the kitchen.

Today we made a lovely Valentine owl, Ballerinas in snowflake tutus, jeweled princess crown, and rice krispies treats in  mini ice cream cones, dipped in melted chocolate, and topped off with sprinkles, of course.

Since she loves assisting her mom, and grandma, in the kitchen, making the rice krispies was a lot of fun for her.  Her favorite part was dipping the cones in sprinkles…..lots of sprinkles, as you can see.

We basically followed the rice krispies directions on the cereal box, but instead of spreading the mixture in the pan, we formed cone shaped treats, and fit them into mini ice cream cones.

Then we melted some chocolate chips to use for dipping the  rice krispies “ice cream” tops into.  Next, we  dipped the still wet chocolate cone tops into colorful sprinkles.  Topped off each “ice cream cone” with a miniature marshmellow dabbed in chocolate, to help it stick better.

It was a fun project, and she was very proud to serve these treats to all of us, while wearing her princess crown.

I have been surfing the net for a cheesecake recipe, and found a picture on Pinterest, of a quite appetizing looking Cheesecake with Cranberry topping.

My daughter volunteered to try this recipe as a dessert for our special family gathering.  I had the pleasure of tasting it, and taking few pictures.

We all really enjoyed this dessert, as the homemade cranberry sauce used for topping, added an interesting flavor an otherwise plain cheesecake.

I will definitely make it cheesecake for Thanksgiving, since I am not a big fan of pumpkin pie, and usually make Pumpkin Roll, instead.

I am listing all the ingredients and directions, for your convenience, but strongly encourage you to visit the original site for more tips, and great pictures.

While visiting the original site, you will notice that her cheesecake’s crust is on the bottom and sides, where my daughter used the crust for the bottom only.

Crust Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups gingersnaps crumbs
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup  unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup fresh cranberries, chopped

Crust Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the gingersnap crumbs, sugar and butter, until crumbs are moist.
3. Mix in the chopped cranberries.
4. Use a springform pan, and press the mixture down over the bottom of the pan.
5. Bake for 10 minutes.
6. Set aside to cool.

 Cheese Filling Ingredients:

• 3 -  8 oz packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tbs. all-purpose flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 Tbs. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cheese Filling Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In large mixing bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar, and flour, at medium speed until smooth.
3. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla.
4. Beat until well combined, but do not overmix.
5. Pour mixture over the baked crust in the springform pan.  Smooth it out evenly with the back of a spoon.
6. Bake in preheated oven 30 minutes.
7. Reduce temperature to 300 degrees and bake 25 to 35 additional minutes, until center of cheesecake is set, but still soft.
8. Turn off oven, leave the oven door ajar, to cool cheesecake in oven about 30 minutes.
9. Remove cheesecake from oven, cool 1 hour on a wire rack, and run a sharp knife around edge of cheesecake.
10. Release and remove the outer band of springform pan.
11. Leave the cheesecake on the sprignform bottom, cover it loosely, and refrigerate for several hours , or overnight.
12. Before serving, you can slide the cheesecake off the springform bottom and place it on a serving platter, or leave it as is.
13. Scoop the cranberry topping over the top of the cheesecake, and smooth it out nicely.

Cranberry Topping Ingredients:

• 12 oz package fresh, or frozen cranberries
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup water (or apple juice)
• 1 1/2 tsp. grated orange peel

Cranberry Topping Directions:

1. Combine cranberries and sugar in food processor.
2. Pulsate to coarsely chop cranberries.
   Place chopped cranberries in a medium saucepan.
3. Add 1 cup water (or juice),and orange peel.
4. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally.
5. Reduce heat, and simmer about 10 minutes, or until mixture is reduced to 2 1/3 cups.
6. Stir occasionally, to prevent it from sticking and scorching.
   Remove from heat and cool.
7. Cover, and refrigerate overnight, or longer.
8. Use as topping just before serving.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!

TIP:  Don’t worry too much if your cheesecake develops a crack during cooling period.  The cranberry topping will cover it up nicely.

I checked the calendar to see when The Great Lent begins, and it just sneaked up on me this year….as it started today for the Byzantine Rite Catholics, at least at the church that my family and I attend.

For Roman Catholics it does not start until Ash Wednesday, so they have two more days to party, even though they already indulged in all the good food last week on Fat Thursday.

During The Great Lent one needs to reflect on their spiritual life, their role in the society, as well as some food restrictions, such as excluding consumption of meat on Fridays,  and especially on Good Friday, as well as very strict fast on Holy Saturday.

I personally like to prepare meatless meals on Wednesdays and Fridays for the duration of the Great Lent, as well the whole Holy Week, which is the week before Easter Sunday.

It actually is healthy to give our system a break from all that meat we eat daily, and introduce some vegetarian or seafood dishes.

Last year I prepared a list of 25 meatless meals  (click here it view it) for your convenience, and linked them to my recipes, to help you out with meatless meal planning.

Today I will include additional ones, which I prepared this year, and you can add to your list.

• Avocado Egg Salad
• Gluten Free Dumplings (Varenyky, Pierogy)
• Rice Flour Dumplings (these would be great with fruit filling)
• Zucchini and Goat Cheese Fritters
• Several different Filling recipes for Dumplings, if you are into Varenyky (Pierogi) making.
• Mini Quiches (these don’t have to be just for breakfast)
• Irish Potato Pancakes

Wow, now you have over 30 meatless meals, which is more than you need to cover at least Fridays, for the duration of lent. Actually you have a full month of meatless meals.  Who would have thought it could be so easy!

I will work on some new ones, if you still want to try something different, so please stay tuned.

• Vegetarian Matzoh Lasagna
• One Step Sponge Cake
• Chocolate Toffee Matzoh

Some of my friends observe Passover, so I am sharing few of the recipes I tried, and there will be  new ones coming up.

I would really love to hear from all of you, about the meatless dishes you enjoy to prepare. Thank you.

You can never go wrong with a jello dessert, especially for parties with mostly ladies, since even though it is not calorie free, it feels lighter than baked goods.

Actually you can make it lighter than my recipe, which I already posted previously for only three layers jello dessert, by using sugar free jello, 1/3 fat or fat free cream cheese.

I already posted a recipe for this jello dessert (click this link)  with only three layers, but decided to share a photo of 5 layers, which adds one more layer of jello, and you split the cheese mixture in half, to create two cheese layers.

I prefer the 5 layers, since the cream layers are thinner, and complement the jello layers more favorably.

If you made this jello dessert, please let me know which one you prefer, the three layers or the five layers.

Thank you.