Recipe #56: Upside Down Pineapple Cake

Recipe: Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Source: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Time: 1 hour

Ease: 4

Taste: 7

Leftover Value: Issues led to no leftovers

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer

You may recall, fruit and cake don't normally equate in my world.

Regardless of this, and regardless of the fact that I never, ever would have made this cake had I not been in the middle of a recipe challenge forcing me to make every single recipe in The Pioneer Woman Cooks, I am learning with each additional dessert I make with fruit that fruit only makes desserts better.

Except with chocolate.  I'm still learning to accept including fruit with chocolate. 

Except chocolate covered strawberries.  They are kissed by God.

Butter and brown sugar.

That is the story of this cake.

And an iron skillet.

It is pretty much essential to this recipe.

Thank God PW doesn't try to reinvent the wheel by making you cut up your own pineapple.

That would have crushed my soul.

Canned pineapple rings make life so much simpler.

The batter is basic and can be mixed together in the same amount of time that it takes for the butter and brown sugar to melt together.

Here is where my impatience yet again got the best of me.

I baked the cake in the oven for thirty minutes.

It seemed a little wobbly in the center, so I skipped the whole toothpick step and put it back in the oven for another ten minutes.*

*Note: PW says it should bake for 30-40 minutes.

After another ten minutes, I decided it had to be finished.  The toothpick was being rather difficult.  It would seem clean at some points and others appeared wet.  I reasoned to myself that it was the wetness of the fruit and that the cake must be finished.

Foolish, foolish girl.  I know.

The problem with this cake is that once you commit to flipping it out of the pan it is irreversible.

In my defense it really, really looked finished.

It was golden brown to a point that I worried it would burn.

Yet somehow, I should have saw the sign.

The sign that blared, "NOT FINISHED".

Regardless of this slop, Hubby and I cut off a hunk of the edge and devoured the cake while it was still piping hot.

The cake had a sweet crispiness to the edge, and the inside was moist and airy.  I made sure to grab a huge slice of pineapple to pair with my piece, and I loved each and every bite.

I'm sure I could have attempted to save the remnants of the cake, but it was beyond the energy I was willing to expend on cake.

Especially after I saw what was left in my cast iron skillet.

Brownie on a Stick, Anyone?

I have always taken issue with creating desserts that are masterpieces of beauty only for them to be demolished in less than 60 seconds.  That might be why I have never been into cake making.  Seeing what other people can do with cakes amazes me.  But I know my reality.  My patience in creating a piece of edible artwork only lasts so long and my logical reasoning would be saying to me the entire time, "This is a waste of time!  People will ooh and aah at this for ten minutes and then in seconds destroy what took hours to create."

Or worse.  They won't want to eat it at all because it, "Looks too pretty to eat".

When unique presentation can be given to food almost effortlessly, then I'm in.

Enter Brownies-on-a-Stick.

I got the idea for these while flipping through one of the many different cooking magazines that I dream of subscribing to (I already have a stack of recipes that I want to make and haven't made yet, could you imagine if I had four different food magazine subscriptions coming to my house monthly?).

I participated in the cake pop fad and after making them three different times I realized what a waste of time they were.  One batch of cake pops took me a minimum of three hours to make.  That's not counting making the cake and waiting for it to cool so that it could be shredded, mixed with icing, and then rolled into cake pop insides.

These Brownies-on-a-Stick give the same kind of Ohmygoodness-you-made-that? presentation as cake pops, but save you oh so much time.

Here's all you need to do:

1.  Make your favorite non-gooey brownie recipe.  You want a thicker, more cake-like brownie that doesn't have major crumbling issues.

2.  Allow the brownies to cool completely.  Throwing them in the fridge for a few hours will help to give a clean cut.

3.  Slice the brownies into 2 x 2 squares.  The ones that are pictured are a little bigger than this and I suffered because of it.  Any larger and you risk them being too heavy for the stick.

4.  Push a Popsicle stick into the thickest part of the brownie--make sure it doesn't go through the top.

5.  Melt some chocolate.

6.  Dip the top half (or the whole thing, why not!) of the brownie into the chocolate.

7.  Dip it immediately into the topping of choice--make sure to cover the top and sides, too!

8.  Allow chocolate to harden.  This takes several hours.  If you have space, put the brownies in your fridge to speed up the process.

Topping ideas: sprinkles, chocolate chips, toffee pieces, cookie crumbs, coconut, mini m&ms, crushed nuts, rice krispies

When the chocolate has hardened, lay the brownies out on your favorite tray in a cute pattern and serve.  Cute, delicious, and super easy.  How can you not love Brownies-on-a-Stick??

 

Brown Butter Blueberry Muffins

Recipe: Browned Butter Blueberry Muffins

Source: http://joythebaker.com/2009/07/browned-butter-blueberry-muffins/

Time: 65 minutes, includes cooling time

Ease: 5

Taste: 10

Leftover Value: 10

Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep in the Strainer!

I want to make something perfectly clear before I begin.  I have never, ever been into blueberry muffins.  I have never, ever been into muffins that didn't involve chocolate chips throughout.

Yet.

These muffins, oh my, these muffins.  They make me forget all about, what were they again? 

I found Joy the Baker through who else but the Pioneer Woman?  And I'm so happy I did.  This girl knows her stuff, and every one of her recipes I have made has been fantastic.

The first time I made these I had no idea what it meant to brown butter, so I winged it.  I'm pretty sure I failed miserably, because since then I have really learned what it means to brown butter.  The muffins hadn't suffered too much, because they were still edible and delicious.  But perhaps they were even more delicious the second and third time I made them with true blue, er...browned butter. 

Here is what Ms. Joy tells us to do: "Keep an eye on the butter.  It will melt, froth, and begin to crackle....The crackling will subside and butter will begin to brown fairly quickly.  Remove from heat when butter solids become a medium brown color and butter smells slightly nutty,"

Wha...wha...what??

First of all, the crackling is hardly "crackling".  From this term, I'm expecting a Rice Krispies snap-CRACKLE-pop sound.  Not quite.  This sound is slightly reminiscent of what...wait for it....butter sounds like in a frying pan.  However, there does reach a point where there is no longer any sound coming from the butter.  I used this the gauge when my brown butter was close to done.

Another issue I have is that no matter the lighting of the kitchen or the coloring of the pan, it is pretty difficult to determine that the butter has officially become brown.  This leads me to wonder things like, How brown is too brown?  and  Did the butter actually change color, or has it looked this way the entire time?

Whether I got it right each time or not, I will say this, this batter is so divine I could skip the baking step, grab a spoon, and call it quits right there.

Thankfully, I have learned to exercise restraint and times have not gotten that desperate.

I love the topping on these muffins, after all, what is there to dislike about the crunchy buttery delight that flour, butter, and sugar make when mixed together?

As I said before, baked goods with fruit aren't normally my thing, but these are like vanilla cake dressed up as something a little healthier. 

I don't even mind the purple stuff at the bottom.*

*Note: Every time I have made these I have used fresh frozen blueberries and it tastes darn good.  Translation: I buy blueberries in bulk, freeze them, and then can make these muffins whenever I want.  

I Love Brownies

Recipe: Chocolate Fudge Brownies
Source: Joy the Baker Cookbook
Time: 50 minutes total
Ease: 2
Taste: 8
Leftover Value: 10
Down the Drain or Keep in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!

My littlest brother, Jonathan, is turning 20 tomorrow.  I think that makes me feel really old.  Even older than I felt when I turned 26.

When he saw the delicious peanut butter cake I made for my brother Joel's birthday he told me he wanted one for his birthday.

Then, he also demanded brownies.

Who wouldn't demand brownies if they knew they could get them?

Therefore, I made brownies.  Of course, only after I made the peanut butter cake.

 Brownies make life better.  Chocolate makes life better.  These brownies, certainly, made my life better.  (And, truth be told, I have one last step yet to add to them--chocolate butter cream frosting.  I promise, I'll post about that later!)

The brownies required three ounces of unsweetened chocolate.  I always forget how the not sweet taste of unsweetened chocolate makes my mouth shake repulsively.

But, after mixing the chocolate with some butter and other essential ingredients, I was ready to lick the bowl clean.

P.S. Those lumps you see, yeah, they're chocolate chips.  Chocolate with chocolate, is there anything better?

This recipe was ridiculously easy.  It called for the brownies to bake for 25-30 minutes, but mine needed to go a little longer.  I honestly wanted to take them out around 25 minutes and serve gooey chocolate bars instead of brownies at the birthday party, but I took into consideration the feelings of others.

Although, I can't believe there are people out there who don't like gooey brownies!

These brownies make me want Christmas.  I'm not sure why.

I'd settle for a cup of hot cocoa with it though...