Dessert weeks in class continue and Tuesday I made a Pineapple Upside Down Cake!! Of course this was the day that I was going to take my time getting to class because it was so beautiful out and It was just a happy feeling morning. And as I walk into the classroom 75% of the class is baking and I'm just derping around. So smooth.
So I jumped right in, got my chef coat on, and looked at the sign up sheet for recipes. I'm so happy (and lucky) that no one picked the pineapple. Of course mine was one of two recipes that didn't require me to make a frosting (but now I still don't know how to make frosting so that the consistency comes out right..oops..).
Anyhow, I was super psyched about the cake. I still don't know why no one picked it because it turned out great and was super easy to make! melted 4 tablespoons of butter in the baking pan but putting it in the 350degree oven for a few minutes. Once the butter melted, I took the pan out of the oven, and took a can of those pineapple rings and put the pineapple on the bottom of the8x8 pan (about 5 rings fit). Then I put maraschino cherries in the center of each of the pineapple rings and put little canned mandarin oranges in the spaces between the rings to fill in the square. I packed 2/3 of a cup of (light) brown sugar on top of everything to make an even layer, so far so good!
Next goes the single layer of yellow cake batter. I took 7/8 of a cup of sifted flour and then sifted in a teaspoon of baking powder and 1/4tsp of salt. Now the recipe said to resift but I was a rebel and didn't.. my cake might have lifted a little more if I had though... Anyways, next in the mixer I threw in 3 tablespoons of shortening and then slowly added in 1/2 cup of sugar so that it was incorporated well and started to cream together. I added one egg to the mixer and beat it for a minute or so, to make it light and fluffy. After that I added about a third of a cup of the flour mixture and I lightly folded it into the egg mixture with a wooden spoon. I was trying to make sure not to over mix it which I tend to do, which makes my cakes dense.. whoop! After the flour mixture I added in about half of my milk (half of a 1/3 of a cup). I folded it in to the mixture in about 8 strokes, then added another 1/3 of a cup of flour. I lightly folded it in again until ti was incorporated, added the rest of the milk, then threw in the last bit of the flour. The key that I was remembering was that my professor told us that lumps are okay. The cake is gonna bake out and smooth over so as long as it's relatively mixed it's going to be alright. Over mixing is a cake killer so don't do it!
I baked it at 350 for about 40 minutes then took it out. I was a little afraid so I let it cook for 10 or so minutes and then had my teacher flip it over. It was a success! Maybe a little sweet but everyone that tried it said it tasted great so mission accomplished!