Now I'm Baking.

I had two good runs recently - Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies and Red Velvet Whoopie Pies.  Notice a trend?  Both were great and turned out nicely because they didn't require any fancy decoration moves.  After those successes and browsing entirely too many recipes online, I got bakers-block.  I had no idea what to bake next.  I sent out a plea on facebook to gather requests so I could bake for other people and hopefully spare my waistline.  My good friend Amber, a friend that I met riding the bus to high school swim team, was the first to respond with pineapple upside down cake.  Ding-Ding-Ding - we have a winner!

I have made pineapple cupcakes before in silicone pans and they came out fine.  However, I used boxed pineapple cake mix and I'm not a big fan of the texture of boxed cakes.  Too light and floofy.  I searched for made-from-scratch recipes and found one that was two-layers - Oh heck yes.  I read the recipe over and over and convinced myself that I could successfully manage the horrific-ly scary 30-second task of flipping the cakes over.

This morning I went to the store and got my pineapple and my cherries.  I came home and I got my ingredients ready.  I opened the can of pineapple and behold - no beautiful rings of pineapple.  Instead I see chunks of pineapple.  I looked at the can again.  "Sliced Pineapple" with pictures of pineapple rings floating in the background.  Seriously?  The can is mislabeled???  Remember that bad luck?

I got over it and started to make my design in the melted butter and brown sugar (using extra butter to make sure it doesn't stick).  Before I started, I had wondered why the recipe didn't have me grease the pans first.  Because there's half a stick of butter, duh.  Plus I have fancy non-stick name-brand pans.  This will be fine.  I got my fruit arranged and made my batter, adding vanilla to the mix.  Who doesn't put vanilla in a cake?  I got the cakes in the oven and patiently awaited my doom while updating Amber on the status of the cake.  Really, I was informing her that I am in fact making her a cake.  She's getting it whether she likes it or not because I am capable of eating the entire thing for dinner.  We need to avoid that.

Beep.  Cake is done.  Toothpick comes out clean.  I grab my plate and flip.  I remove the pan.

75% of the pineapple chunks are still stuck to the pan.  I curse.

Round two.  I grab a spatula and angrily loosen the cake and hidden fruit.

10% of cake and fruit stick.  Looks a lot better, but nothing photo-worthy.

Whatever.  You get a photo anyway.  Here is the stupid thing:

I meticulously shoved the abandoned fruit back into the top of the cake.  Then, I took a spoon and ate the remains.  Whoa momma, that was good.

This is the exact moment that spurred me into creating this blog.

Try it for yourself if you dare:  Scroll down and download the .pdf here