In an effort to expand my culinary horizons, I have decided to make one dessert a week that I've never made before (or at least since Avram and I have been married). I love cooking, but I've focused my attention on baked goods (bread mostly, and rolls, and cinnamon rolls), and main dishes. I'm woefully inadequate in desserts like cakes, pies, or yummy things that make me drool when I'm reading cookbooks, which I always seem to do when I'm hungry.
This week I made an upside-down Pineapple cake out of my Betty Croker 1959 reprint cookbook, which is very strong in the desserts/breads/quick breads section, but woefully lacking in main dishes. Most main dishes are composed of pasta or rice mixed with a white sauce and lots of cheese and baked in a casserole. Sometimes there is extra butter, or chicken, or something, but it's all very fattening and boring.
Anyway....
So I love pineapple upside down cake, or at least I did when I had it as a kid, and so I wanted to try actually making it. I put it together and baked it last night. When I turned it over it looked like this:
You may be wondering where the pineapples are. I certainly wondered that. They had floated to the top, which had now become the bottom. You can see one poking out in the upper right corner. And it was a flat, eggy tasting thing - definitely not a cake. Plus it was really oily - there was a 1/3 of a cup of butter in the bottom (I thought it was too much, but it's not a good idea to change a recipe before you've even had a chance to taste it. Yep, it was too much).
On my highly official chart of thumbs up meaning it moves into my regular repertoire, one thumb up meaning it was good, but will be made rarely, one thumb down being that this is the one time I'll make it, and two thumbs down meaning I regret wasting the ingredients, and secretly want to throw it away, this gets a:
I'm thinking of maybe rescuing the pineapple slices out and using them for something more palatable. This isn't a very fortuitious beginning, but I'm determined to continue. Any suggestions for good desserts?
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Chocolate Pudding Delight
1 day ago
We should share cooking. I can't do breads/main dishes at all. Ok. Thats not true. I can. But I don't like it!
ReplyDeleteDeserts are my thing though! I love them! I love making them!
I'll send some recipies when I get home!
Gotta love those old cookbooks. Mine is Better Homes and Gardens, ca. 1980's. I guess it was right when microwaves were the new cool appliance, because every recipe has a microwave option, including the PIE CRUST recipe. MICROWAVE PIE CRUST.
ReplyDeletePatricia Wrede's Quick After Battle Triple Chocolate Cake. I know you know where the recipe is. I made this cake at camp this year, and even though I didn't grease the pan enough so the cake stuck like murder, the taste of it wowed the professional cooks and bakers with whom I was working.
ReplyDeleteOoo...I'll have to rustle up some of my recipes for you. I have half a dozen really good ones I make semi-regularly.
ReplyDeletemy two favorite current things to make that are easy and yummy and of course fattening... are banana bars ( basically banan bread made in a jelly roll pan instead and then add cream chesse frosting... Mmmmmmm) and peanut butter bars which is not really baking so much as mixing ingrediants together but they are really yummy and taste just like a candy bar. I also love a good lemon bar. Hmmm i seem to be a bar phase.
ReplyDeletei never liked pinapple upside down cake myself. sorry it turned out so bad though! stick with your rolls.. man those are good. i need to learn how to make good rolls.
Make this and pour it over ice cream and you will be happy (at least after you eat it and several more spoonfuls for a finisher):
ReplyDeleteFudge Dream Sauce:
2T Heavy Cream
2T Milk
2T Sugar
2T Butter
3/4c Chocolate chips (or whatever other kind of chocolate you have--about 4.5 oz.)
Combine cream, milk, and sugar and stir until completely disolved. In a small saucepan or doubleboiler, combine butter and chocolate. Heat and stir until completely melted. Add milk mixture and continue to heat and stir until all blended with no lumps (or as close as you can get).
If you like chocolate, this will make you melt into a puddle of rapturous delight. It keeps well in the fridge or freezer and reheats in the microwave from either. Or you can eat it solid and cold by the spoonful. This is usually how mine disappears.
Just thought I'd share a happy recipe I love, like I love you. :o)