Ironic Cake Pineapple Upside Down Edition

What happens when you bake a classic from an ancient cookbook for the birthday of your dear friend and pastry chef? You embellish with better techniques and tastier ingredients. Isn’t it ironic?

Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare all inner surfaces of a 9 inch round cake pan with nonstick cooking spray or butter. Line bottom with a round of baking parchment and spray once more. Cut strips of parchment and line sides. Do not spray side parchment, as this makes a nearly flat topped cake.

Into a microwave friendly bowl:
2 tablespoons butter. If using unsalted add a dash or two of salt.
4 tablespoons brown sugar firmly packed
1 tablespoon water.
Nuke until melted, and place in bottom of prepared baking pan

Into a medium sized mixing bowl stir together:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda

Into a small mixing bowl combine:
1/4 cup butter. If using unsalted add a dash of salt.
1/3 cup sugar

Cream together then add:
1 egg
Seeds from 1 vanilla bean. Do it it’s yum.
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
Zest of one citrus fruit. I used blood orange. Delicious.

Beat together then add:
2/3 cup milk. Use whole milk for something wonderful or half and half for something decadent.

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. You can beat for a minute, but I didn’t. Mishaps happen.

Ok. Here’s the fun part.
1 can pineapple rings.
14 maraschino cherries cut in half.
Arrange 5 or 6 pineapple rings around the outside of cake pan and one in the center. The cake is most beautiful if you squish a total of seven rings into the pan, as it helps everything stay in place. place half a cherry into the center of each pineapple ring and in each little spot along the edges. Carefully pour batter into pan, and spread evenly. If you used seven rings they won’t move. If you use six they will probably shift a bit.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

The pineapple part of this cake is very sweet. The cake part is a delicately flavored. If you have a sweet tooth cut into six servings. If you don’t cut into 12 servings. Top with lightly sweetened whipped cream or french vanilla ice cream.

BTW: Pastry chef loved it.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Remember my 50% off Halofox ends tonight at midnight PST. Discount applied upon checkout. It’s my Valentine for you, so gogogo get yours now.

At our house we celebrate holidays with cut iced sugar cookies. Here’s my original recipe. Enjoy!

Ravenous Knits
Be My Sugar Cookies
Want a sweet snack? Crisp on the outside. Soft on the inside. Let’s bake.

Cream together
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
zest of one orange
insides of one vanilla bean (do it its yum)
Once thoroughly blended add 1/2 cup milk

In a separate bowl stir together
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix until flour mixture is moistened. There may be small lumps. Resist the urge to over mix. Dough will be very sticky. Do not fear. Tear off two large sheets of plastic film. Turn out dough and divide in half. Loosely wrap each portion and flatten into disc. Chill for 20 -30 minutes. Dough should feel firm but give to gentle pressure.

Preheat oven to 350°. Generously dust both board and dough with flour one portion at a time and roll to 1/8th inch thickness. Roll in one direction only. Turn dough 90° after each roll. Flour top and bottom as needed. Work quickly. Dough must remain cool. If in doubt return to fridge and cool.

Cut into fancy shapes, or freehand it. People will be delighted with shapes, but these are good cookies. Flavor will sell them. Place cookies onto parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes. The edges will be slightly brown when done. Let cookies stand for a few minutes after baking to firm up then transfer too cooling rack.

Continue to roll out. Refrigerate scraps. Roll until dough is all gone. That last sad tiny piece. Flatten and bake it. You need something to test to ensure these cookies aren’t poison.

Royal Icing

Zest one lemon. Juice one lemon. Add zest to juice and set aside. Strain out the zest before adding to powdered sugar mixture for decorating fancy shapes. Leave it for drizzling over un-fancy shapes.

In a large mixing bowl beat 2 egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add 2 cups sifted powdered sugar and 2 drops glycerine. Add 2 teaspoons lemon juice. Stir together. If icing is too thick add more juice. If icing is too thin add more powdered sugar.

Make sure cookies are completely cool before icing – except that last lumpy scrap. Dunk it in the icing. You need something to test to ensure the icing isn’t poison either. Violà. Yum! Add food coloring and do fancy icing if you wish, or drizzle if you’re in a hurry.

These are my favorite sugar cookies ever. The cookie dough alone has a faint and delicate flavor. Adding lemon zest to the royal icing really wakes up vanilla bean and orange zest flavors in the cookie. I’ve used lime or grapefruit zest in the cookie dough with equally delicious results. Zing!

Tonight my sweetheart and I will enjoy a quiet evening in. I have a special surprise for him. My darling neighbor Elise has a Cricut, and she helped me papercraft a heart bunting to hang over the fireplace.

Time is Running Out!

Hello again friends,

Just a reminder Halofox is 50% 0ff in my Ravelry Store. Time is running out.

When I named Halofox I was thinking of the ring shape – like a halo- and the lace motif brought to mind fox faces, but now the season of LOVE is upon us. I see hearts.

It’s a perfect gift for the knitter in your life. Treat yourself or a friend for Valentine’s Day.

Halofox

I’m super excited to announce the self publication of my newest design Halofox.

Halofox is knit in the round. A ring shaped cowl with shawl-like drape. Lace motif resembles charming fox faces. Encircle the neck once, twice or three times. Halofox requires no shawl pin yet stays in place effortlessly.

Get your copy of Halofox at half price from now until midnight 31 Jan 2014 in the Ravenous Knits Ravelry store.

I guess it’s a good thing I knit four of them because….

It took four times knitting Lotus Ring to see the error in the pattern.

Lotus Ring Errata:

From Round 5 through Round 15 the YO’s at the end of round on the far left side of the chart should appear on the far right of chart.

I am busy working on a magazine submission. I expect to complete the  magazine project and get working on an updated Lotus Ring pattern late next week.

Gnome Cap on Video!

I’m so excited!

Very Pink Knits did a Youtube tutorial using my Incredible Expanding Gnome Cap pattern!

And my Lotus Ring pattern is finally uploaded and ready for purchase in my Ravelry store.

Yukimi

I’m totally excited to announce my first design with Twist Collective!

Meet Yukimi:

Photo by James Brittain Courtesy Twist Collective

Visit TwistCollective.com for pattern details, and make sure study the entire magazine.

It’s a spectacular issue with amazing designs, and I’m honored to be a part of it.

And…I want to make one of everything.

In other news: I finally sewed this project bag for Lorraine. It’s linen lined with taupe silk.

The fabric is reclaimed from a couple of thrift shop shirts.

Thanks again to Buffalo Gold for the purple Moon Lite.

Lorraine already subscribes to Interweave, so I’m sending a Rachael Ellen Beret pattern.

I’m also including small crochet hook for lace knitting mistake repair, and 10 of my favorite type of stitch markers for lace knitting.

The markers are simple and cheap jump rings–the kind you get at the jewelry findings aisle  in a craft or beading shop.

I like the closed jump rings best, but can’t always find them.

Hope you like them, Lorraine!

I’ve been told I should include photos of my cats. Here’s an old one, and it’s still good:

They like to snuggle when they are cold. The rest of the time they hiss and growl.

Winner of Buffalo Gold contest #4 is…..

Lorraine!

I loved her comment. She must have read my blog, and remembered that I like to bake.

In her comment she posted a recipe that is delicious. Here it is with a few technique de cuisine tweaks.

Glazed Pumpkin Muffins

Muffin Batter:
◦1 cup granulated sugar
◦1 cup brown sugar
◦3 eggs
◦1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup canola oil -OR- fat free plain yogurt
◦1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree
◦3 cups all-purpose flour
◦2 teaspoons baking soda
◦2 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
◦1/2 tsp salt
◦1 package instant vanilla pudding mix

Glaze:
◦2 cups powdered sugar
◦1/2 tsp cinnamon
◦2-4 TBSP Milk

Directions:
1.Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F
2.In a large bowl, combine sugar and eggs until blended. Add oil and pumpkin. Beat until frothy and well blended.
3.In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, salt and pudding mix.
4. Add wet and dry ingredients together. Stir gently until dry ingredients are moistened. Do not over mix.

5.Fill lined cupcake pan 3/4 full and Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
6.Remove from pan and cool completely.

Glaze
1.Whisk together powdered sugar, cinnamon then and add 1 tbsp of milk at a time until desired consistency.
2.Dip warm cupcakes into glaze to coat.

Recipe courtesy: afewshortcuts.com, posted with permission.

I think I may have made a big mistake.

It happens all the time, really.

Me and big mistakes are like two peas in a pod.

I’m not talking about big mistakes like the Netflix / Quickster debacle.

I’m just talking about big mistakes like I left WordPress.

It was so easy to use.

It was so easy for my readers to use.

I’m not so gung-ho on blogging when my website’s blogging software is not as user-friendly as the software here.

I wonder if I came back, would anyone be interested in rejoining me?

Maybe I could refresh interest and perhaps pick up a few more followers if I did another giveaway.

A giveaway I promised, but had trouble putting together during the chaos of launching a website, graduating a kid from high school and sending said beloved daughter nearly 700 miles from home for college.

Yep, things have been busy here.

But maybe I’m back?

I think YES!

Lace Virgins: We Want You!

My new friend Dorothy says, ” Hey, all this lace talk makes me want to learn. Can you direct me to a beginner pattern? Thanks.”

I searched “easy lace” on Ravelry and found the Hemlock Ring Blanket.

Knitting and photography by Jodie Carson

The Hemlock Ring Blanket is a fresh spin on a popular doily pattern crafted by Jared Flood. Jared writes a good pattern, so I trust him. I also looked at statistics, because numbers don’t lie. Out of roughly 4,000 attempts there are 3000 finished projects. A 75% success rate isn’t too shabby. (Of course, the doily statistics are even better. Of 76 projects 63 are finished.)

Dorothy and I have started a knit-a-long on Ravelry. We hope you will join us. If you’d like to KAL,  just keep track of our progress, or simply mock us because it’s fun, please visit the KAL here:http://www.ravelry.com/groups/moknits-hrb-kal

(I’m hoping to finish mine by the end of March 2011.)