So I was late in making these yummy treats, pics after the jump, since I was ill this weekend. Cheap food sometimes isn't a good idea. Like 39 cents chicken wings from Miami Subs.

Other than that Ive had a pretty good weekend and I know the weekend will end quite well too. For starters, there is the birthday cake I'm making for my boss. Its a cowboy hat with a goats head on the face of the hat. He's a Satanist, let's not judge now, and hes a Cowboy. He doesn't sacrifice little babies or animals he just has a lifestyle that's carefree pretty much. I respect his beliefs and I don't judge.

Anyways, he's turning 30 so I thought it would be cool to make him a banging cake!

Then I thought I would also make all my coworkers on my floor little valentines day gifts. It'll be little treat bags with a cupcake brownie glazed over in the shape of a heart with V-Day chocolate kisses as well. I have to make 20 or so of those.

And then on Saturday I have a gun show to go to to get my gun permit so that I can carry my gun around. About 2 weeks ago I was nearly assaulted and my Blue Great Dane puppy, Sophie, was almost taken from me.

The man who was fairly large, I'm only 5'2'', asked how much was I selling the puppy for. I thought it was weird since I didn't carry any thing noting a puppy for sale. So I proceeded to tell the man that how did he get the notion that my dog was for sale.

He then asked the same question again and I got annoyed and told him to get away that he could not afford such a dog. I know, I know, I was asking for it with that response. He then called me a B**ch and told me he was going to take the dog anyways. I told him I had a gun, which I didn't at the time, and to back away or I would shoot. He ran after me. So I picked up Sophie and ran as fast as I could into a crowd.


That's Sophie Bleu

Ever since then I have no choice, but to carry my gun. So there goes money being blown on a permit to carry it around. Id rather spend it on shoes or new baking utensils. Uhg, Miami is so horrible!

Back on topic! Sorry about that, Didnt want anyone to think I was a crazy woman for carrying a gun.

So I have to admit, I LOVE these floating islands. Yummy and fun to make. Mine are still cooling in the fridge seeing as I made them like 3 hours ago. The only difference with My Floating Islands and Dories are that mine are made with Carnations Dry Milk or "magic crystals" as Carnations likes to put it. Saves me a lot of money on milk and tastes just like 2% milk. Much healthier since Im dieting. again.



The Custard




My fav, the Merengue.

I am a huge fan of pineapples. Crushed, smashed, chunks, rings or puree pineapple. It doesn't matter to me at all. I practically drool at the thought of pineapple. Actually, I'm drooling right now. For my Friday recipe I decided to take my moms pineapple upside-down cake and turn it into a cupcake! Bam! Just like that. Only this time, instead of a cherry, I would use strawberries. Tart and scrumptious, it would add the perfect balance to her recipe.

She always did say never to follow the recipe completely but make it your own in a certain way. Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm not done yet. Not only did I change out the cherry and add a strawberry but I also drizzled some maple cream onto it. Not much, so it would not overcome the pineapple flavor. We will see how it goes tomorrow at work when I take this batch to my subjects. Although my husband, Jesse, already approved!

My photography skills are horrible seeing as this was taken with my iPhone.


Pineapple Upside-down Batter:

1 cup of Butter (2 sticks) softened to the touch.
1 cup of Sugar.
2 cups of Self-rising flour
4 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla extract


Topping (or the bottom of the cupcake :P):

2 cups of Strawberries.
1-20 oz. can of Crushed Pineapples.
1/2 cup of Butter (1 stick) softened to the touch.
3/4 packed light brown sugar (or any kind of brown sugar, really up to you)

Maple Cream:

3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream.
5 tbsp of natural maple syrup. None of this Aunt Jamima stuff. I'm talking real maple syrup!

Making the cupcakes:

Make sure you pre-heat your oven to 350F degrees. While that's heating up, in a large bowl,
mix together the butter, vanilla, eggs, sugar and sift the flour into that bowl. Mix with an electric mixer for 1 minute on the lowest speed then 3 minutes on the highest speed. Once done with that go ahead and butter your muffin tray and dust it with flour if you want. I prefer lining them with the cupcake liners.

Spoon into the pan 1 tablespoon of melted butter, one tablespoon of crushed pineapples, and one tablespoon of brown sugar. Do this to each cupcake liner in the pan. Once done go ahead and spoon in the batter. I pretty much added the batter till it was flushed with the top of the cupcake liners. Heh. Bake for 20 minutes.

While that's baking, go ahead and mix the heavy whipping cream and the maple syrup together. Stir occasionally till it turns into a thicker consistency (around 5-8 minutes).

Serving:

When you are ready to serve these cupcakes just put them on a plate upside-down take off the liner and drizzle lightly 1 tbsp of maple cream and top with a few slices of a strawberry.

Let me know what you guys think of my version of my moms pineapple upside-down cake recipe.

Enjoy.