And so it Begins...

I have undertaken a new direction in my kitchen life, and my blog is going to reflect that. Yes, that’s right. After months of failing to chronicle my kitchen adventures, I’ll be blogging again. I’m trying to master the art of baking. I’m starting with the science, first, so I’m reading Alton Brown’s book on baking.

After reading the introduction, I learned something very important. I have been living a lie. A muffin based lie. All these years, I thought I was making muffins. But it turns out I was making cakes masquerading as muffins. WHO KNEW?! Not me. And obviously not most of the people who were eating what I was baking.

In order to remedy this horrible truth, I decided to take a “muffin style” recipe from his book. Okay, that wasn’t the only reason. There was also the fact that I was visiting Southern Virginia, and thought that a “traditional” Southern recipe would be nice. And maybe the biggest factor is that I’d be visiting my grandma in a week, and as a belated birthday celebration, I wanted to make her favorite kind of cake.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. PUD.

So, the recipe is pretty simple. First you’ve gotta make that delicious top. Melt butter in a cast iron skillet, toss in the brown sugar and stir it until it’s melted. Put your pineapple rings in and make a pretty design. Don’t forget the cherries in the middle of each one! I sprinkled some pecans into the delicious mixture, and added some pineapple juice on top.
For the cake itself, sift together your dry ingredients (or use a food processor, or if you are desperate like I was, you can use a blender. Yes. A blender.), then separately mix your wet ingredients. Here’s the secret muffin key right here! Don’t overmix! Dooooon’t do it. It is so so so hard for me not to mix until the batter is completely combined and smooth. But, hey, that makes a cake. In order to make a muffin, you want to mix the wet and dry ingredients until they are just combined. Alton says he walks away ten seconds before he’s really ready to. It felt like I walked away about one minute before I was ready. And then I worried that I’d over mixed. A history of over mixing will do that.

Pour the batter on the top. I’ll tell you, when I did this I had a mild conniption fit. There was so little batter! There was so much topping! My batter made a thin layer over the topping. A very thin layer. I spent the first 20 minutes of baking worrying that I had done something wrong. But when I peeked in, it had fluffed up dramatically, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I searched the strange kitchen I was in for a thermometer. No dice. A toothpick? A cake tester? Noooo dice. I eventually decided that the bottom just looked really done, and pulled it out of the oven.

I let it sit for a few minutes, and then I attempted to flip the cake onto a serving platter. I may have sprained my wrist in this process, because the platter I was using was heavy, and the cast iron skillet the cake was in was heavy, and apparently I’m not as strong as I used to be. But I got it flipped, and it was beautiful! I paced around the kitchen waiting for it to cool, and then cut myself a small slice. Delicious. A little over baked. But delicious. I checked the structure of the cake. Muffin-like. Not cake like. Win!

So, this was PUD cake, attempt No. 1. I will attempt this cake again for my grandma, and hopefully I won’t over bake it this time. I think I’ll also be adding a little whipped crème fraiche with some pineapple juice added.

The Recipe:
Pre-heat oven to 350. Make topping in cast iron skillet (melt butter and brown sugar over medium heat on stovetop, then move off heat for remainder of topping preparation). Prepare dry and wet ingredients. Combine. Pour over topping. Bake for 40 minutes, or until 210 degrees. Take out and cool slightly, then carefully invert onto the serving platter.

Topping:
1 stick of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
Canned pineapple (recipe says in heavy syrup, I like it in its own juice)
Maraschino cherries
¼ cup chopped pecans
3 tablespoons pineapple juice

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients:
3 large eggs
5 tablespoons pineapple juice
1 cup granulated sugar