Omg, I love this recipe. Not as much as my Tiramisu cupcake, but its up there. This actually took me 3 hours to make, only because I was watching Leatherheads and oogling John Krasinski while baking. It was relatively easy to make and messy too!

I decided to look up the origin of German Chocolate Cake when I came across some interesting stuff. Apparently this cake is American and has no German association except for the fact that in 1852 a gentleman by the name Sam German made this dark baking chocolate bar for Baker's Chocolate Company. After a while they just dropped the apostrophe and the "S" and it became Baker's German Sweet Chocolate instead.

I baked this recipe for my hubbster Jesse. He looooves coconuts. Hopefully there are still cupcakes when I get home tonight. :) A coworker also asked me to bake this for them. Ill do that next week.

Ingredients for the cupcake:

So I know I'm suppose to post on Tuesdays for my TWD cooking posts, but yesterday I was sick and just felt blah! I really wanted to do this recipe though. I love baking cakes and I love turning them into yummy breads. Although I do love the way bundt pans look at the same time I also dont like them for the same reason.

I thought this would be better put to use in a bread pan. Eaten like bread and not cake. I waited for today to have a bite of it with some butter and caramel flavored coffee. The raisans were so yummy in this Kugelhopf. Oh man, I almost died of delight when I had that first bite.

Although it was really tasty I just have to say to Dorie, Why...Why must you pick the most craziest recipies that require an insane amount of prep time and not even WARN me about it! Jeez Louise! I wanted to kill myself making this cake. That and I had a husband asking me when it would be ready. Its like having a child in the back seat asking if you are already there yet. You just want to drop it of on the side of the road, but know that you would end up seeing some jailtime for it.

Also I've been sick for the past few days and have been traveling from west coast to east coast. It's been pretty non-stop for me the last 3 weeks or so. I went to Las Vegas for a dear friends wedding. It was completely beautiful. I got to see our friends cry and of course my husband made fun of the groom sniffling the entire time. I won 500 big ones at a Texas Hold'em table on my first try. Im sure it wont happen again, but it was fun as hell. I spent 4 days in Vegas and had so much fun this time around even though last time I went I got married. Too many things to do the last time I guess.

I then came back and was only home for 2 days when I had to drive 9 hours to Georgia to my little nephews birthday party. Conan, the dog that I had mentioned before, didnt get adopted by my coworker and my mom got him anyways. Now she has 2 mini-pinches. I was in Georgia for 2 days, hung out with family, went to a 65 mile yard sale and found a working Commodore 64 for a dollar, and finally when to a bon-fire. I loved the weather up there. I wish it would get cold here in Miami.

Im going to be making some cupcakes tomorrow and experimenting with fondant decorations as well. I know Ill be tired as hell seeing as I'll be at Best Buy tonight waiting in line like a reatrd for the release of Wrath of The Lich King. Bleh.

Oh man, I've had so much to do these past few days. I had to work 7 days straight. I had to hold a BBQ, I went vegetarian, I cleaned my house from top to bottom in 2 hours only to have it messed up after that. So during a break today I was able to FINALLY make my Lenox Almond Biscotti's.

I'm not really allowed to give out the recipe, but I'm gonna go ahead and give out the ingredients.
This was super easy to make and really quick which is what I needed in order to relax.

You're going to need all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, corn meal, butter, sugar, eggs, almond extract, sliced almonds, cinnamon, ground ginger and allspice.

I've been craving that Fall-Winter feeling so bad that I added the cinnamon, allspice and ground ginger. In Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From my home to yours, it also gives you variations like the one I used.

I really miss the cool weather with the color change as well. I really wish Fall-Winter did happen to Miami. Ah, well on with the pictorial.


He didn't care that I wanted a picture of him, he just wanted to know why I hadn't started baking yet!



The baking instructions with my trusty bowl!



Most of the dry ingredients. My husband gave me that funny look you give when looking at a crazy person who is taking pictures of a bowl full of powder.



Whisking dry goods. Yay! No, Not really.




Oh I absolutely loved this part, sugary butter and spices! They were yummy! Before the eggs of course! Don't want to risk salmonella, do we?


(Insert whirling noises from hand mixer and Voila!)

Ready to pour onto a baking sheet. I was going to buy a silicon baking mat, but I got out of work at 8 PM tonight and It's my wedding anniversary. Which I forgot about. Yes I'm that person. So on my way home my husband reminds me what day it is and that he has dinner plans.

I knew exactly what day it was when he told me and I knew exactly what he ordered, Sushi. My absolute fav! So I really shouldn't have baked at all tonight, but this is my first submission to TWD and I wanted to do it. It was only an hour really.




I know, I left it in for 5 minutes extra while I had to answer a phone call and thats what happened! I was a bit discouraged it was going to blow up on me.



Saw, Saw, Saw those burnt edges off and cut them into long strips.



Lined them up like a marching band and BAM! cam out yummy. I know I'm going to have some of these for breakfast tomorrow with my coffee! Till next Tuesday with my next TWD post.

This Friday I'll be experimenting with cupcakes and fondant. We'll see how it goes and I'll keep you updated!

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?