Cake Craze!

The Hlavek household has been a busy bakery tonight! Just call us snack and sugar junkies this week! Between leftover spinach artichoke dip and turkey meatballs (in addition to dinner!) on Monday and a movie night yesterday with way too much popcorn, we’re on chow overload here! Might as well wash all of that early week snacking down with a sugar splurge, right? At least I do have somewhat of an excuse: We’re heading over to our pastor’s house for a visit tomorrow and I offered to bring dessert. See, some of this won’t be eaten tonight! ;) But since we have been in mindless munching mode, I thought I’d throw in one more sweet treat for fun (and I promise we’ll share the leftovers tomorrow at work)!

One of Danny’s favorites is pineapple upside down cake. Surprisingly, I have never made this. (I know, I’m a bad wife!) However, most of the time Danny is not much of a dessert person and making an entire pineapple upside down cake for just the two of us would be outrageous. (Although, at the rate we’re going this week I probably shouldn’t talk!) Anyway, it has been on my list to do for quite a while and I’d seen a cute twist on the classic from Pinterest so it’s time to give it a whirl! The recipe makes 6 jumbo cupcakes or 8 regular. Danny was upset to learn that the regular size pan would not allow the entire pineapple ring to fit in the bottom; I wanted an excuse to buy a new pan so jumbo size it is!

To quench our crunchy munchy mood, I came across a Cake Batter Buddies recipe that I just couldn’t pass up. Since I had all the ingredients on hand for both recipes I took that as a sign to just get busy in the kitchen! We’ll start with the cakes since they’ll be the most time consuming- although still fairly easy. While they’re baking we can get busy with the CBBs!

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE DOWN (JUMBO) CUPCAKES

What you need for the cake:
2 eggs
2/3 cup white sugar

5 Tbsp pineapple juice
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Jumbo or regular muffin tin (makes 6 jumbo or 8 regular-I’m doing the jumbo size)

What you need for the topping:
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
2/3 cup brown sugar (I used 1/3 cup light, 1/3 cup dark)
1-can pineapple rings
6-8 maraschino cherries

To make the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray your muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray. 
2. In a mixing bowl add eggs, white sugar, and pineapple juice.  Beat for 2 minutes. 

3. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. 

4. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients and turn mixer back on for about 2 minutes. 

To make the topping:

1. In a small sauce pan melt the butter and add the brown sugar.  Stir on low heat for one minute.

Put it all together:

1. Spoon a layer of the warm brown sugar mixture into the bottom of each muffin tin, then place a pineapple ring on top.   

(If you’re using regular muffin tins, a full size ring won’t fit; you can just cut them down into chunks or use pineapple tidbits.) Add a cherry in the middle of each pineapple.

2. Pour cake mixture over the top of your pineapple mixture to fill muffin tin 3/4 of the way. (I put the batter in my 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup and poured it out.)  

3. Bake jumbo cakes for 25 minutes (regular cakes will take about 20 minutes).

4. When a toothpick comes out of the middle of the cake clean, they are done! 5. Remove from the oven. 

6. Let cool in pan for 3 minutes.

 

7. Run a knife or spatula around the edge of each cake to help loosen in case it sticks a little. 

8. Place a wire cooling rack on top of the cakes, and quickly flip over on top of sheet tray to catch extra drippings. 

This was after we flipped them on top of the sheet.

 

 

 

 

 

I know they look messy but I'm betting they are yummy!

ENJOY!!

CAKE BATTER CRUNCH BUDDIES 

What you need for Funfetti Cake Batter Buddies:

7 cups Chex cereal (I used Corn Chex, but any variety will work!)

10 oz (5 squares) vanilla flavored Almond Bark (do not substitute white chocolate chips- they just do not melt as well)

1 1/2 cups Funfetti cake mix

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vegetable shortening

3/4 cup mini marshmallows (optional)

To make your buddies:

1. Measure out your cereal in a large (and I mean BIG) mixing bowl.

2. Melt the almond bark according to the package directions. I added the vegetable shortening about half way through the melting to help thin it out.

3. Drizzle the melted almond bark over the cereal. Mix gently with a large spoon or spatula (I coated my spatula in Crisco so it would mix easier and not break all the cereal.)

Tossed with the almond bark

4. Now you can transfer your chocolate coated cereal into a large Ziploc bag, or just continue to use your bowl and spoon/spatula but you need to toss the funfetti mix and powdered sugar onto the cereal. I chose the bag route as I like to shake it up and I think it mixes better this way. Just be sure your cereal gets evenly coated.

5. As a final option, I thought tossing in some mini marshmallows would be fun. The recipe didn't call for them but they went with the white, bite-size theme and I thought it seemed like a cute idea!

ENJOY!!

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