Friday, April 27, 2012

Pineapple Upside-down Cake


Ian said he wanted a Pineapple Upside-down Cake for his birthday. We have no idea how he came up with that, as he's not had it. 
He does like the book "Inside, Outside, Upside Down" though! 
He helped me make the cake the night before, and enjoyed it on 
his 4th birthday: April 15. 

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
4 eggs
1/2 c. butter
1 c. packed light brown sugar
1 (20 oz.) can sliced pineapple
10 maraschino cherries, halved
1 c. sifted cake flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 c. white sugar
1 T. butter, melted
1 T. almond extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a 10" heavy skillet with a heat-resistant handle (I use a cast iron skillet), melt 1/2 cup butter or margarine over very low heat. Remove from heat, and sprinkle brown sugar evenly over pan. Arrange pineapple slices to cover bottom of skillet. Distribute cherries around pineapple; set aside.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Separate the eggs into two bowls. In a large bowl, beat egg whites just until soft peaks form. Add granulated sugar gradually, beating well after each addition. Beat until stiff peaks form. In a small bowl, beat egg yolks at high speed until very thick and yellow. With a wire whisk or rubber scraper, using an over-and-under motion, gently fold egg yolks and flour mixture into whites until blended. Fold in 1 tablespoon melted butter or margarine and almond extract. Spread batter evenly over pineapple in skillet.
5. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until surface springs back when gently pressed with fingertip. Loosen the edges of the cake with table knife. Cool the cake for 5 minutes before inverting onto serving plate.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Onion Bread


Here's a quick idea using Rhodes bread dough. I used this recently with dough mixed and raised in my bread maker. It turned out very good; we had it with Creamy Broccoli Soup from Mom's cookbook.