Pineapple Upside Down Cake with Cinnamon Whipped Cream

I know I'm not making any new and exciting culinary breakthroughs with this recipe. It's not gourmet, it's not even made from scratch. What it is, is GOOD. I'm sure there are probably 11,000 recipes out there just like this. That's probably because it's simple and it works. The great thing about this dessert is that you can literally throw it together while dinner is on the stove, or when company comes knocking at the door, and it will be ready to eat in under an hour.

I use a boxed vanilla cake mix for this, but if you have a fantastic, go-to, scratch made vanilla cake recipe, use it! I do not. I should get one of those. All I ask is that you please add some pineapple juice to your cake mix somewhere. One can of Pineapple Rings will yield approximately one cup of pineapple juice, so plan accordingly. Use pineapple juice in place of water when following the directions on your cake mix. It makes all the difference.

Cinnamon Whipped Cream recipe to follow.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2 oz butter
.5 c brown sugar
1 can pineapple rings (juice reserved)
1 batch of your favorite vanilla cake mix prepared with pineapple juice in place of water
Optional: shredded coconut, maraschino cherries, pecans

Melt 2 oz of butter in a 9"x13" cake pan. I like to just throw it in the oven while it's preheating.
Sprinkle brown sugar over butter and stir until incorporated.
Arrange pineapple rings on the bottom of the pan over sugar mixture.
If you're using any optional ingredients like nuts or cherries, now would be a good time for them to join the pineapples.
Pour cake batter evenly into the pan.
Bake according to your cake's directions.

Let cake cool for 15 minutes and then turn it upside down onto a platter. I like to store this covered tightly in plastic wrap because it helps the cake retain it's moisture.


Cinnamon Whipped Cream

.5 c whipping cream
.25 c confectioner's sugar
.5 tsp cinnamon

Combine cinnamon and confectioner's sugar in a small bowl.
Pour whipping cream into prepared mixing bowl and begin beating on low with a hand mixer.
Slowly add in cinnamon-sugar mixture.
Increase speed to high and beat until cream is desired consistency. This usually takes me about 3 minutes.


This works best if you're working with cold cream and cold tools. I usually put the beaters and mixing bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes before making this. It's also ideal if you use whipping cream straight from the fridge. Don't let it sit out for very long before making this topping.
You can make this in advance and store it in the refrigerator covered. If it gets soupy or watery, just beat it with the hand mixer and it will come right back to life.

Or, just use Cool Whip. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies on allrecipes.com a few years ago. It's not my recipe, obviously, because someone else created it. But it is the cookie recipe that I make for my family. That's what this blog is all about; not just recording my original recipes, but those that are staples in our home.

I follow this recipe exactly as it's written and it never fails. The vanilla pudding is a great flavor addition. These cookies don't spread out a lot during baking so I usually give them a little pat before I put them in the oven. This way they bake up like discs rather than biscuits. The only change I do make is that I cut the recipe in half because the original recipe posted on allrecipes.com makes a lot of cookies. I've scaled it down here so that I never have to divide 4.5 cups of flour in half ever again.


Award Winning Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cups butter, softened
• 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

Apple Dumplings

This is not my recipe, but is from a popular website that I frequent: The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

I first read this recipe when she posted it last winter and thought it was the strangest thing I had ever seen. 'Mountain Dew and Crescent rolls?' I thought, 'Give me a break!'. One day in August while combing through her archives for some inspiration, I noticed that I had all of the ingredients for this dessert on hand (except the Mountain Dew, I needed to make a special trip to the store for that) and decided to give it a try. I'd half the recipe so if it flopped, which I fully expected it to, it wouldn't be much of a loss.

As soon as I took this out of the oven, I knew I was going to be sorry that I only made a half batch. That, and my kitchen smelled as if it were smack in the middle of a giant apple pie.

This apple dumpling recipe is not at all diet friendly, so if you're on one of those, you'll probably want to pass this by. It is a great alternative to baking a full apple pie and it's a snap to throw together. I can have this in the oven in under ten minutes. The most time consuming part of making this is peeling 2 apples. It's so simple. I'll post the recipe in it's original form and make notes of what I now do differently.

Apple Dumplings

2 Granny Smith apples
2 cans crescent rolls (I use reduced fat)
2 sticks butter (I reduce this to 1.5 sticks)
1 1/2 cups sugar (I reduce this to 1 cup)
1 teaspoons vanilla
cinnamon
1 small can Mountain Dew

Peel and core apples. Cut apples into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan. Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, and spoon some of the sweet sauces from the pan over the top.

I've found that 30 minutes is plenty of time to bake this dish. At 40 minutes the top of the rolls have started to brown and become hard. 30 minutes allows the rolls to cook through and the apples to soften just enough. I also sometimes dice a third apple and scatter it around the pan in the liquid.