Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe

Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cake

30 minutes One Large Cake or 5 mini cakes Ingredients: 1 can pineapple rings, 1 box white cake mix, 1/2 cup butter, 1 jar maraschino cherries, 1 1/2 cup brown sugar

This recipe is basically summertime in cake form. It's got juicy pineapple with a hint of cherry, and light white cake that tastes just like a day by the pool. The best part about this recipe -- it's way easy!

I made mine in my mini cake molds -- I keep finding great recipes to use these with -- but you could easily make this in a larger version.

Here's what you need!

Ingredients (yields 5 mini cakes or one large cake)
• Canned Pineapple rings
• 1 can maraschino cherries
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 box white cake mix

Directions
1.     Grease your cake pans and preheat oven to 350. I used my mini spring form molds, but a
        bundt pan or regular cake pan will work here, too. Just note there will be a difference in baking
        time.

2.     Prepare cake mix according to box directions. Replace some of the required liquid with
        pineapple juice from your can. Yum!

3.     Add pineapple ring and cherry to the center of your mold. If you are using a larger pan,
        you'll line the entire bottom with pineapples and cherries.

4.     Fill the rest of the mold with cake mix. Careful not to overfill, as it will rise quite a bit.

5.     Bake your cake(s). Mine took about 15 minutes to bake, but again, go longer for a bigger cake.
        Allow your cake to cool for about 8 - 10 minutes before taking it out of the pan.

6.     In a saucepan, melt 1/2 cup of butter. Once the butter is melted, stir in the brown sugar until
        everyone is evenly incorporated. Spoon the mixture onto the cake.

7.     Top with another layer of pineapples and cherries. Serve warm, and enjoy!

Happy Homemaking!

Sallie

The Perfect Pie

Two weeks ago, I became my own boss (read about it here) And as my own boss, I get to make a lot of decisions for how my day goes. Including whether or not I want to bake a pie in the morning and eat said pie for breakfast. Yes, I had pie for breakfast, don't even pretend like you've never done that. But I'm my own boss so it's ok.

I really love pie. Like LOVE LOVE it. I think there is no better dessert, and I'm willing to debate it with you. I don't think pie for breakfast should be an everyday decision, but sometimes you just have to for the love of pie. 

See, even Fitz loves pie. I also bought this new pie plate from Anthropologie (shh, don't tell Andrew) so I really had no choice but to make a pie for breakfast. My hands were tied guys. 

The real key to a great pie is a great crust. This crust recipe is adapted from The Pioneer Woman who loves shortening and butter as much as I do, God bless her. 

And can we also just talk about how awesome these pictures look? I finally bought a DSLR so now my pictures are sooo professional. Here are a few more of them, along with the recipe because I know that's what you really want. 

Ingredients 
For the crust
• 3 cups all purpose flower
• 1 1/2 cup Shortening
• 5 TBSP cold water
• 1 large egg
• 1 TBSP Vinegar
• 1 tsp salt

For the filling
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup butter (room temperature)
• 2 lbs sliced fruit of your choice

Directions
Preheat Oven to 350

1.     Combine the flour and shortening. Use a pastry cutter and really work the flour into the
        shortening. This actually doesn't take very long to do by hand, so use a pastry cutter and spare
        yourself having to do the dishes. You'll know you're done when the flour resembles a course
        meal.

2.     Add the egg, water, vinegar, and salt. Beat the egg with a fork before adding it in. Continue
        working with the pastry cutter until it resembles dough. You may opt to get in there with your
        hands at this point.

3.     Roll out the dough. On a floured surface, roll out your dough and place it in the pie plate. Save
        the remainder for the lattice crust.

4.     Mix the sugar and butter. In a separate bowl, use your pastry cutter to combine the sugar and
        butter. Mix until it's a course meal.

5.     Add fruit to the pie plate. Add your fruit to the pie plate. For this one I chose strawberries and
        blueberries, but my personal all time favorite is peach blueberry. MMMM.

6.     Add sugar mixture to the pie. Dump the sugar onto the fruit and mix it around.

7.     Cover with lattice crust. I always go for the lattice crust, but you could go solid crust if that's
        what you're into.

8.     Bake in oven for 35 - 45 min. You want it to have that nice golden glow, like a California tan.
        You know the look.

Enjoy this friends, and by golly eat it for breakfast if that's how you feel!

xoxo Sallie

Galentine's Day 2016

This week I hosted my first ever "Galentine's Day" party! For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Galentine's is a fictitious holiday, created by Leslie Knope from the the TV show, Parks & Recreation. It's a holiday all about celebrating the love you have for your girlfriends.

I have some very lovely gal-pals, so I was more than happy to host a gathering in their honor. We spent the afternoon making bath bombs, snacking on chicken salad, sweet potato fries, some macaroons (thanks Francie!), and this spectacular lemon blueberry layer cake.

Chocolate Cake and All the Feelings

This past month and half has been one of the most physically/emotionally/mentally draining times of my life! If you didn't know, I am in a contest to win $75,000 (read the details here). It's really crazy. I'm still pinching myself.

I found out I was a finalist for the Mrs. Meyer's Homemaker Hunt in early December, and since then it's been the only thing on my mind. The anticipation is through the roof! It's like the feeling you got when you were a kid waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve, except EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE!

The stressing started with figuring out what kind of video essay I was going to make. They gave me guidelines, but I'm a person who wants to know EXACTLY what you want me to do. God bless the person at Mrs. Meyer's who answered my MANY emails for clarification. This was one of those times when you just have to say "this is the very best I can do," and hope that it's enough.

Spooky Cookies Tutorial

This Saturday is Halloween, and I can't think of a better way to spend the afternoon than by making spooky cookies! Your kids will have a great time, and the trick-or-treaters will thank you!

Sidenote: Michael's craft store has all their Halloween cookie decorating supplies marked down by 50%! 

Best Sugar Cookies Recipe

If you'll remember, a few months ago I tried (and failed) sugar cookie decorating. I failed miserably, and you can read about that failure here, but today I am here to redeem myself AND I have a great sugar cookie recipe to share.

In addition to the botched frosting on my last batch of cookies, they also completely lost their shape.  It looked like I was decorating shapeless lobs of dough. This time I searched for a recipe that would hold it's shape, and I found this one from my friend Debbie. This is from her 8th grade Home Ec class, and it is the best recipe I have ever used for intricate shapes PLUS it's super tasty. 

The Great Cookie Catastrophe of 2015

Lately on instagram I've seen these really beautifully decorated sugar cookies. Apparently, these cookies are a sign of a good blog because they are everywhere! Naturally, I was inspired and thought I'd try them. My goal was to make delicious cookies, frost them perfectly on the first try, blog about how easy it was, then be a huge success and go viral on Pinterest. I could see it all in my head -- it was going be uh-mazing. 

With little experience frosting cookies and without much preparation, I started out. I made some sugar cookie dough then left it in the fridge to chill. When I got back from running errands I rolled out my dough and started cutting. Despite flour everywhere, it was relatively smooth sailing. It's hard to mess up when you are just cutting shapes out of dough. 

The cookies bake and cool and it comes time to make the icing which requires large amounts of confectioner's sugar. I spill sugar all over the counters, all over myself, but I do manage to get some in the bowl. A minor set back. I finish it, divide it into my colorful latte bowls, then color it. Food coloring on fingers, but oh well. 

*Sidenote: For this type of cookie decorating you use two consistencies of icing -- the first is for the border, and then second is for the flooding. Basically, the thicker border icing keeps the runnier icing from flowing off the cookie. That's how you get that perfect glaze look. This information comes into play later in our story.

I had my icings made, put them in my icing bag with my newly purchased frosting tips and that's when things got a bit out of hand. I started with border icing, which came out surprisingly quick, so I am tracing the outline of the cookie as fast as I can, but not nearly fast enough. Then came the flood icing which was even faster than the previous icing. It's spilling out everywhere and there is no stopping it! It freely flows over the border icing, all over the table, but I press on! Because remember people, I'm blogging about this and it has to be perfect. 

I finish the first round of cookies thinking "these will look a lot better when they dry." Did they? No. Not at all. These cookies look like I decorated them with my feet, and by now I am covered in confectioners sugar and icing. My kitchen is a complete mess and I have nothing to show for it. 

Andrew came home as I was attempting to finish the last batch and says "Oh, did you have Zuzu come over to help you decorate cookies?" For reference, Zuzu is my 5 year old niece. Ha ha very funny Andrew! 

I gathered what was left of my baking pride, spent a solid 30 minutes repairing my kitchen, and put the usable cookies in a container to take to work. At least there they will be appreciated by the mouth, if not with the eyes. 

Ever failed at baking? Tell me all your kitchen failures, you're in good company. Have a great day everyone -- may your cakes rise and your cookies never crumble! 

xoxo Sallie

Summer Mini Pies

I don't want to sound braggy, but I am really good at making pies. Like REALLY good. It's one of my strengths. What I lack in cake baking, I make up for in pie making. I especially love this season because fruit is at it's peak and it's a great time to pour sugar and butter all over it and make a pie.