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.

So Smooth Smoothies

Recipe: Healthy Smoothies

Source: The Orange Strainer

Time: 5-10 minutes

Ease: 1

Taste: 6

Leftover Value: 9

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

My soon-to-be SIL*, Mallory, and I made smoothies the other day.

*What is a SIL?  Well, if you ask my other SIL, Samantha, it means "Sister-I'd-Like-Ta..." but that's just a bad inside joke.  In all seriousness, it just stands for Sister-in-Law.  But it's so much more fun to say.

I'm not really a smoothie person myself, but this thing is really beautiful.  And it was super simple and super healthy.  

We started by throwing a bunch of fruit that was nearing (extremely nearing) expiration.  That would be the strawberries on the bottom and the bananas on the next layer.

You can't see it, but those bananas have some pretty brown spots.

I begged Mallory not to put them in there.

But she did.

Then, we threw in a handful of ice and some frozen blueberries.  (We didn't have any fresh blueberries that were nearing expiration).

We pulsed it in the blender for a bit.  This is around the halfway point.  It took a while to get it blended real good.

This is seriously the healthiest I've ever been with a smoothie.  Usually, I at least throw in the fattiest yogurt possible (because it has the most flavor, of course) or, if I'm feeling particularly devilish, some vanilla bean ice cream.

But going healthy never hurts.  Mallory even had the leftovers for breakfast the next day and said that it was pretty fantastic leftover.