Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with family and friends. I intended to post something on Christmas Eve and the day just got away from me. So a belated Merry Christmas to you all!

We had some friends over on Christmas Eve. I kept it simple - just appetizers that I bought at Sam's. I also made some pigs in an blanket with Little Smokies (just cut crescent rolls in thirds long ways, then wrap around the sausages. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes or so). We also had seven layer Mexican dip that one of our friends brought. I just love that stuff. It's refried beans, sour cream, salsa, cheese, black olives, and green onions. I made my Spiced Apple Cranberry Cider and put out some of the cookies and candies that I had made over the last couple of weeks. It was a nice, relaxing evening.

On Christmas Day my aunt and her kids came over. We don't have any other family that lives close so it was just six of us. I did a somewhat non-traditional dinner. I just wasn't in the mood or turkey, ham or roast. I made fried chicken, mashed potatoes with cream gravy, hot rolls and a couple of vegetables. I guess it was good. Everyone (with the exception of my five-year-old) had at least two plates.

For dessert I made pineapple upside down cake - my all time favorite cake - and that is the recipe I am posting today. The basic recipe is from Kraft Foods, but I made a couple of changes because I like more of the pineapple topping and I prefer using crushed instead of slices. This is great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

Pineapple Upside Down Dream Cake
2 20 oz cans crushed pineapple in juice, undrained
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted
Maraschino cherries, optional
1 box yellow or pineapple cake mix (I use the pineapple)
1 envelope Dream Whip whipped topping mix
4 eggs
1 cup cold water

Heat oven to 350. Mix melted butter and brown sugar in a 9x13 pan. Drain pineapple, reserving 2 tablespoons of juice. Pour drained pineapple over brown sugar and butter and spread evenly. If using the cherries, arrange them in the pineapple pushing down into the pineapple so they will show when the cake is turned upside down.

Mix cake mix, Dream Whip, eggs and water in a large mixer bowl. Beat on low speed for two minutes, then increase speed to medium and beat four more minutes. Spoon batter over pineapple in the pan, then spread evenly.

Bake at 350 for 50 - 55 minutes or until top springs back when touched in the center. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto serving platter. Leave pan for 1 minute, then remove. Serve warm or cooled.

National Cake Day

We have yet another off-beat food holiday to celebrate today. It's National Cake Day! Yea!! These "holidays" are great because they give me an automatic subject to blog about.

I love cake. I love pie, too. I love pretty much any and all desserts. Here are a couple of my favorite cake recipes. As usual, they are fairly quick and easy. I love good food, but I don't love spending all day cooking it.

Enjoy!

7-Up Cake
1 box lemon cake mix
1 small box instant vanilla pudding mix
¾ cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups 7-Up
4 eggs

Icing
2 cups sugar
1 20 oz can crushed pineapple
½ cup butter
5 tablespoons flour
2 egg yolks
1 cup coconut
1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9x13 baking pan (you may also use 3, 9 inch round pans).

In a large mixer bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, oil, 7-Up and eggs. Blend until moistened. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake at 350 for 40 – 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack. Spread top of cake with cooled icing. *

To make icing, combine sugar, pineapple, butter, flour and egg yolks in a saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil. Cook and stir until thick. Stir in coconut and nuts. Cool completely before icing cake.

*If making a layer cake, cool cake 15 – 20 minutes in pan, then remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks. Spread icing between layers and on top and sides of cake.

Pecan Fudge Sheetcake

1 box chocolate fudge cake mix, plus ingredients to make cake
½ cup butter
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 pound powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 15 ½ x 10 ½ x 1 jelly roll pan. Prepare cake as directed. Pour into prepared jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 for 20 – 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Frost while still warm.

For frosting, place butter, milk and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan. Stir on low heat until butter is melted. Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract stirring until smooth. Stir in pecans. Pour over warm cake. Cool completely.

National Bundt Cake Day

Well, I think tomorrow is National Bundt Cake Day. I say "I think" because I can't seem to find a definitive answer. The first National Bundt Cake Day was November 15, 2006 and was started to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Nordic Ware, the manufacturer of the Bundt pan. I don't know if they intended it to be an annual event or not. I found on FoodReference.com that National Bundt Cake Day is now celebrated the Thursday prior to Thanksgiving each year. So that's what I'm going with. I don't see any reason why we can't have Bundt Day every year, do you? Any day is a good day for a Bundt cake in my opinion.

I love Bundt cakes. Whenever I bake cakes they are almost always Bundts. I have a regular 12-cup size Bundt pan, as well as two pans that have six mini Bundts in each pan. One of the mini pans is the regular Bundt shape and the other has three different fancy shapes. Those are fun to use for gifts.

I hope you'll consider celebrating National Bundt Day by baking your favorite Bundt cake. I have included the recipe for one of my favorites here.

Luscious Lemony Bundt Cake

1 box lemon cake mix

1 small box lemon instant pudding

3/4 cup water

3/4 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

Powdered sugar

Frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

Heat oven to 350. Spray Bundt pan with cooking spray and coat lightly with flour.

In a large mixer bowl, blend cake mix, pudding, water and oil until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat on high speed for 8 minutes (yes EIGHT). Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes or until tootpick inserted halfway between the edge and center of the pan comes out clean.

Invert hot cake onto a wire rack set over baking sheet. Prepare a very thin glaze using powdered sugar and thawed lemonade concentrate. Spoon generously over hot cake making sure to cover cake completely. Allow cake to cool for 20 minutes or so and spoon more glaze over the cake. Allow cake to cool completely and glaze one more time. Glazing the cake while hot allows much of the glaze to soak into the cake providing more moistness. The second and third glazings allow a nice glaze to form on the outside of the cake - kind of like a doughnut.

For a final presentation you can make some additional glaze with a thicker consistency to drizzle over the cake, if you like.