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.

Well, Welcome to my first and only baking blog. This will be my compendium for tried and tested recipes on all sorts of cakes, cupcakes and pies. I figured that I bake so much I might as well start a blog so that I can share my recipes on here. I love baking. A Lot! I see a new recipe and I immediately run home to make it. Usually my co-workers are the ones that try all my baking since my husband and I are trying to lose weight. Although I do leave him a few since he has a bit of a sweet tooth. I grew up around constant baking.

My mother is a southern woman so she's always cooking huge meals and lots of desserts. My grandmothers are the same as well. On one side of the family we have some deep south cooking and on the other side of the family there are wonderful Spaniard delights. I'm thankful that I was raised in an environment where cooking is a big thing.

When I was younger I hated to cook or bake anything. I remember telling my mother that I wasn't going to have to do any baking since I was going to have to hire a cook when I grew up. I don't know what I was thinking, considering the fact that I now love being in the kitchen most of the time.

I work odd hours so when I get home around 8:30pm I still try to make something, anything really. My biggest reward from my baked goods is hearing "No, No, I can't eat anymore." That's when you've made some one happy with food. When they can't have another bite. Well, on with the show eh?