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.

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.

Cooking with rhubarb brings back sweet memories of my childhood.

My mom always grew rhubarb in her veggie garden, and used it in cooking and baking.

She would use it as a filling for varenyky (perogy), steamed dumplings, added it alongside other fruits to her  uzvar (kompot), a little bit went a long way in her Strawberry Soup , as well as a filling for cakes.

Today’s recipe is for an Upside-Down Rhubarb Cake, which is absolutely delicious, and I am sure you will agree, once you enjoy a piece.

Excellent to make ahead, and freeze.  (see TIP – below)

Cake Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 4 Tbs. unsalted butter (keep refrigerated to use for pan bottom)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1 Tbs. orange juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 cup sour cream

Crumb Topping Ingredients:

• 4 Tbs. unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• pinch of salt

Rhubarb Filling Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lb. rhubarb
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

Rhubarb Filling Directions:

1. Trim both ends of the rhubarb stalks.
2. Peel the stalks, and cut up into 1 inch pieces, crosswise.
3. Add brown sugar, toss gently.
4. Set aside.
5. Mix the rhubarb with sugar once again, before using it in the cake (the juice from the rhubarb will slightly melt the sugar by now).

Crumb Topping Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, add the softened butter, sugar, salt and flour.
2. Using a fork, mix it all together, to create crumb mixture.
3. Set aside.

Cake Directions:

1. In a medium mixer bowl, add 1/2 cup of butter (room temperature), and 1 cup of sugar.
2. Mix well, until a light and fluffy (about 15 minutes ), scraping sides frequently, for even mixing.
3. Add lemon zest, orange juice, and vanilla extract.
4. Mix to incorporate.
5. Add one egg at a time, and mix well, after each addition.
6. Mix in 1/2 of the sour cream.
7. Mix the flour with salt and baking powder.
8. Mix in 1/2 of the flour, into the butter mixture.
9. Add the rest of the sour cream, mix gently, then add the rest of the flour.
10. Mix just to incorporate.
11. Use parchment paper, trace the bottom of a springform baking pan onto it, and cut out the circle.
12. Grease the sides of the pan, and dab few spots of the bottom.
13. Place the parchment circle on the bottom of the pan.
14. Grease lightly.
15. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
16. Use the 4Tbs. of refrigerated butter, set aside previously, cut it up into small chunks
    
17. Drop butter chunks all over the parchment lined pan bottom.
18. Spoon the rhubarb/sugar mixture over the butter chunks, and press down firmly with a back of a spoon, to form the bottom for the cake.
19. Spoon the batter onto the rhubarb, and using the back of a spoon, press down gently, and smooth it evenly all over the filling.
20. Sprinkle the Crumb Topping all over the top of the batter.
21. Place the springform pan on a large piece of aluminum foil, roll up all the edges to form a rectangular pan (this will prevent messing up your oven, by the rhubarb juices dripping out of the pan during baking).
22. Place the cake pan with the foil lining, on the middle oven rack.
23. Bake for 65-70 minutes.
24. The topping will be lightly browned.
25. Remove the cake from the oven, and cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
26. Use a knife to separate the cake from the sides of the springform.
27. Remove the sides of the springform.
28. Set the cake, still on the springform bottom, onto a wire rack, to cool for at least 20 minutes.  Invert it onto a cake stand (with the crumbs at the bottom).
29. Gently peel off the parchment paper from the top of the cake (this used to be the bottom of the cake), and let it cool completely.
30. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, or serve it with a dollop of whipped cream.

Enjoy!!

Please share your comments, and tips.

TIP:  I wrapped a piece of this cake in aluminum foil, and froze it for 30 days.  After thawing it at room temperature for about 1 hour, the cake was AWESOME!!  It tasted as if I just baked it. 

We are in the midst of the strawberry season in our area, and most other zones will follow very soon.

There is only so much fresh strawberries one can serve daily, so what else can we do with these wonderful fruits?

I have some great recipes to share with you, to help you out with the heaping baskets of strawberries you have been harvesting.

Please click on the highlighted links below, to be directed to the recipes for these desserts.

Easy and delicious Jello Dessert with raspberries, but also great with strawberries.

Nothing gets better than a Strawberry Napoleon, made with fresh strawberries.

If you love cheesecake,  you will adore this Creamy Cheesecake with fresh strawberries on top.

How about a refreshing Cream Cheese and Jello Mold. You can use either frozen, or fresh strawberries, for this one.

Did you ever try turning these luscious fresh strawberries into a delightfully tasty Strawberry Soup?

Your taste buds, and your family, will forever be thankful for this creation.

You see, I told you not to worry about all those strawberries you picked.

Now have fun preparing these tasty dishes, and share your comments, please.