Skillet pineapple upside-down cake

I know this is not a new recipe but it is so easy and one of my favorites so I’m adding it here in my recipe file. I have always made this in my 10″ cast iron skillet, but you can make it in an ordinary cake pan.

 1/3 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 (20 oz) can sliced pineapple, drained (cherries & pecans halves opt.)

1 & 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 teas. baking powder

1/2 teas. salt

1/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup milk

1 teas. vanilla,

1/2 teas.lemon flavoring,

1 egg       

     Melt butter in skillet, spread brown sugar over butter. Place pineapple slices on sugar.  Combine flour, sugar, baking powder & salt, add shortening, milk & flavorings. Beat 2 min. Add egg & beat. Pour into pan. Bake 350 about 40 min. Turn out of pan while still warm.

Prune Cake

Despite it’s name (some people don’t like prunes) this is a very good cake. I used to make this for a local “tea room” many years ago. A nice moist cake.

PRUNE CAKE

1 &1/2 cups sugar

1 cup cooking oil

3 eggs ( beaten)

2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon each of–baking soda, salt, & cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon allspice

 1 cup buttermilk

1 cup chopped cooked prunes

     Cream sugar & oil, add beaten eggs. Sift flour & other dry ingredients together. Add buttermilk & flour to creamed mixture. Stir in chopped prunes. Place in 3- 9″ greased & floured pans. Bake 350 about 35 min.

Frost with your favorite buttercream frosting.

Holiday Cakes

With the holidays fast approaching, I have a lot of cakes to bake and decorate. I have one customer ( a business) that gives my cakes away as gifts . This year she has ordered 20- 11×15 sheet cakes. They have the same message but I can decorate anyway I like as long as it looks like Christmas.  These are from 2007 and………..

  

here are 2 designs from 2006………… plus one for another friend and my first time making such a large poinsettia.

  

Black and White

This was the first “gift box” type cake I ever made. It turned out pretty well I guess because another customer loved it so much they wanted a birthday one almost like it. One difference was the bows. I made fondant bows for the wedding cake and I had to made ribbon bows for the birthday cake because I didn’t have time for the fondant to dry but that was OK with the customer.

Birthday Cake

Message in a Bottle

This cake was a gift to the groom from the bride and they served it at the rehearsal dinner. I thought it was such a cute idea. I made the shells from white chocolate and that is not as difficult as it looks because you can buy  molds to do this. Just melt the chocolate and pour into the molds, place into the refrig. for a few moments and pop them out. Easy. After they had firmed up I dusted them with shades of pearl dust. The bride gave me the words she wanted for the note and I wrote them on a rolled out piece of fondant and placed it near the glass bottle.

A Flower Basket

 Sometimes a sheet cakes can be soooo boring but I love how this one turned out. I piped the basket using a small tip # 47, the flowers are all butter cream. Instead of placing the flowers here and there I grouped them by color in clusters, giving a more realistic look to the basket.

A Pretty Fall Wedding

This was a beautiful wedding, held in 2007 at an historic building in Pinehurst, NC called The Fair Barn. The bride choose to have both her wedding and reception at the same place. Each table with an array of tiny pumpkins used for place cards, to the table center pieces, gave the whole room a fall atmosphere and was so beautiful. The square cake placed on a copper tray had a swirl design and  topped with a fondant sugar bow brushed with gold pearl dust. The cake was surrounded with fresh fall flowers provided by the florist.

 

Baby Christenings

  Here are 2 examples of Christening cakes. The first one has a piped cross filled in with a cornelli lace design and a spray of butter cream flowers and a monogram made of fondant.

The second cake design was similier with the cross molded of white chocolate, accented with white butter cream roses and touches of blue flowers made of fondant. Both cakes were classic butter cakes frosted with vanilla butter cream. 

   

 

 

Halloween Birthdays

Don’t you just love Halloween birthdays or at least near Halloween.  There are so many possibilities for cake decorations, you can go as crazy as your imagination will let you. I have one customer that loves for his birthday cake to be decorated with this theme. Here are 2 that I have done for him in the past, now I’ve got to start thinking about this year.