Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes!

Well we just competed a huge task!! We put a new patio in, in our backyard and when Jason's brother and Dad came over to help I knew that I needed to make his brother his favorite dessert. However, since we were so busy in the yard and since I didn't have all the ingredients I usually do (I did not want to go to the store as that would leave us a man down and we had lots of work to do.) I busted out a box mix (don't even start with me OK! I know I know but sometimes they are useful, quick, easy and reliable!) I had just gotten a new pan at Walls Bargain Center for a bargain price of $6.99 and I had been dying to use it and my idea was to make personal size Pineapple Upside Down Cakes! This happens to be my brother in laws favorite (mine too!) SO I quickly got to work made my batter so I could get to baking and then back to digging!!
Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cake


Here is the pan ready for the cake... Gosh after I got the butter and brown sugar and pineapple in there wasn't a whole lot of room for batter and room to rise! Oh well good thing my first go at this is just with a box mix!


Hot out of the oven here these cutie cakes are...




Survey says? Yummy cake... perfect for freaks like me that like an equal amount of pineapple to go with each bite of cake! They were so yummy and too cute! I can't wait to use this pan to do my pleasantly pineapple cake (hint hint it will be coming next!)

I thought I would show you all the patio with the new furniture since it was the inspiration for the post and since I blabbed about it. If you are anything like me and hate hearing a story and then getting no visuals then you will enjoy these!

Here is my cheese ball husband the night before when we had dug the patio out and did all the frame work!


Here is the gang working on the pathway... Hey I was helping too but someone had to document the project


Ta Da!! The best part? The candle chandelier on the umbrella!


Here it is just one more time (sorry I am just so proud of us)


Well Happy First Day of Summer everyone!! Hope your summer is going well! I also got a great new BBQ cook book at Lowes this weekend... so expect some yummy new recipes that we will be enjoying on that new patio furniture!! (OK OK OK I will stop finding a way to bring up the patio!)

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Peace Love & Softball Cake

Well I am sorry it has been so long since I have posted last!! I got an order two days ago for a 16 year old birthday cake! She wanted three tiers to this cake! I have never done this before but I am always up for a challenge so I said sure! She also wanted this cake to have the theme of "Peace Love and Softball" since she is very into sports and softball. The kicker was that she wanted the cake tie dyed!! So I decided to tie dye the inside of the cake and frost the outside in her favorite color TEAL!!

Ok so here we go with the pictures...
I separated the batter into 5 bowls to drop in the pan randomly so it will look like tie dye when you cut into it. It looks more like doing Easter eggs then cake baking!

That is not too blues either... clearly my camera is not up to par (although I already knew this) so my purple looks a bit like a darker blue...

Here it is in the pan ready to bake!

All done... only 5 more cakes to go!!

I did not take any photos during the assembly of the cake because... well to be completely honest I had a melt down twice. I was ready to toss in the rag and vow to never cook again! And at another moment when my husband offered help clearly the look on my face showed that his help was better spent with him back on the couch in the living room!! Well once the frosting (Swiss Meringue Butter Cream- White Chocolate flavor YUM) was on the cake and the supports were in I came back down from my "I hate cake cloud" and remembered why I love cake! and baking! and called said husband back in the room to help me put on the candy melt decorations and make him admire the fact that I did in fact not kill the cake or myself!!
SO here are the pictures from the assembled cake... the lighting is not up to par on that side of the kitchen so I am sorry for the darkness of the photos.




On the top I did "peace love softball" she got the idea from a tie dye t-shirt that she has.

Well I was pretty pleased with the results especially with this being my first round with this massive of a cake. I lined a wooden board with a bright pink vinyl table cloth for the presentation.

Once the cake was delivered I proceeded to go outside in the backyard and enjoy my new toy!

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White chocolate cupcakes!

Well I told you all that I made a cupcake version of the birthday cake I had made. It seems that I was so obsessed that I had to make up a reason to make the Swiss Meringue Butter Cream again! If you are looking for the recipe here is the original post!I took a couple pictures of them and I thought I would share them with you here. I have got to say this is the lightest, yet sweet and most wonderful cupcake I have had in a long time!

Here are a few pictures for you!




Some of them I filled with a fresh strawberry or a surprise inside!

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Sunflower cupcakes

Last week I got a call for an order for a birthday cake and some cupcakes. I was so excited as I have not had many "official" orders and even though I have not had many I just knew this was going to be great! I have so many recipes I want to try and decoration ideas to test out but I am sure that my butt would be as big as a house if I decided to try one recipe a week! I know what you are thinking "Heather, just give them away" yea ok! That is a great idea in theory but we all know how that would go. Taste of the batter here.... lick of the frosting there... and before you know it your stomach hurts there is frosting from your nose to your chin and you are surrounded by little paper cup holders that have now been torn to shreds all around you. Then you think well I was just going to have one.... Well I try to not even tempt myself by trying to not bake all the time unless I have a purpose or a place to send the goods! SOOO my point being, it was AWESOME to get this order as it gave me cause to try a cake recipe I had wanted to try for so long as well as decorate some cupcakes and try another cake recipe! The only problems was I got the call Wednesday night and they needed the goods by Saturday morning... So that meant I needed to get my ducks in a row Thursday so that Friday after work I could everything baked! I decided that since last Saturday was the first day of spring that I would do some cheerful sunflower decorated cupcakes! For the cake they had requested something with with fresh fruit and it made me think of a recipe I have been dying to try that Cassie from How To Eat A Cupcake made a while ago! The recipe is here!!! And let me tell you folks.... this cake got rave reviews. I ended up making a cupcake version of it Monday, but that's another blog! The most amazing part I have got to say is the Swiss Meringue Butter Cream frosting!! I made it the way that Cassie made it with her tweaks from the original. I have watched her make SMBC for years and always wanted to try it out but to be perfectly honest... I was scared!! Yes YES I have admitted it! I was afraid of frosting! NOT ANYMORE KIDS!! I have made this frosting now 3 times. I can't seem to make it without the white chocolate though! That is probably because once I realized how easy it was to quest and conquer the amazing silky smoothness that is the Swiss Meringue Butter Cream I have gone on a bit of a binge! It is like suddenly realizing you like something that you never knew existed. You can't get it out of your head, you think about it all the time, and often realize that anything that you are eating could most definitely be made better by putting this new found magical item on it! I swear I am currently having an affair with Swiss Meringue Butter Cream!! For the cupcakes I made SMBC (without the white chocolate amazingly enough) and tinted it! It was great! I used a cake recipe I found here. The cake complimented the frosting quite nicely! Of course the touch that made the cupcakes in my opinion is the ladybugs!!!!
SO now lets get to some pictures!
Here is the center of the cupcakes before they bloomed into beautiful yellow sunflowers!


Well I have to say I think they look quite good but it just seems like something is missing!!


Tada!!! Ok how cute are the ladybugs?


Here is the birthday cake! I decided to top it with a strawberry garnish and some freshly grated white chocolate. As we can see I cant seem to frost a cake to save my life so thank god I was saved by the wonderful flavor of the cake!




Here it is in the box ready to go!


I just have to show you these cupcakes again! I felt so proud and although my pipping skills are lacking you have to start some where and I was pretty happy with the end result!


I just don't know how I will ever made baked goods again that do not have Swiss Meringue Butter Cream frosting and ladybugs!

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Blueberry Muffins

This Friday I was off of work because my best friend was in town and staying with us for the weekend. Since I was the first to wake up I thought I would surprise everyone (everyone being my husband Jason and Ryan my best friend!) with some homemade muffins and a pot of coffee so we could start the day off with the most important meal of the day! I just happened to have all the ingredients in the house, which I love because when I get a wild hair or a crazy plan for something I just love being able to walk into the pantry and see that I am actually going to be able to make it happen without having to go to 3 different stores to get everything. The only thing I would have preferred would be to have used fresh blueberries instead of canned blueberries, however, my last few trips to the supermarket have lead me to believe that they are not quite in season because there have not been any available. Other then that I think this recipe is great. It is not too rich or over powering and the crumbly topping is the perfect sweet touch.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 cup of milk

1 cup of fresh blueberries (I used canned and they turned out great!)

Crumb Topping Ingredients:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/4 cup of butter cubed

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon



Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and then enough milk to fill the cup. Pour this mixture from the measuring up in with the flour mixture.

3. Fold in the blueberries





4. Fill the muffin cups right to the top.



I only had a cupcake pan and not a muffin pan so I decided to fill some to the top to get huge muffins and some smaller so that there would be a variety of sizes.



5. Sprinkle on crumb topping mixture. To make crumb topping: mix together ingredients and sprinkle over the muffins before baking.





Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until done. Mine were done at 20 minutes but I also used a cupcake pan versus a muffin pan.






Look at that crumb topping.... Ryan came in the kitchen just moments before the muffins came out of the oven and we ate them warm. It was great!

UPDATE: I was cruising around on Piece of Cake and saw that she too has made these muffins!! She agreed they are wonderful! And really... lets face it she is like a goddess when it comes to writing or baking! So if she says something then consider it BIBLE! Live it, learn it... LOVE IT!

UPDATE: These are photos of them made with fresh blue berries... They were fantastic!

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Salisbury Steak

For me when I think of comfort food I think of something yummy that fills you up and makes you think of home, or Grandma's kitchen! This is definitely one of those dinners that goes on this list! This is my second time making this dish and it is so easy and delicious so I thought I should blog this and share with all of you!



Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy
By Sandra Lee

Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 (10 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup (I used 98% fat free healthy request by Campbell's)
- 1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup frozen chopped onions (I used fresh onions)
- 1 Teaspoon steak seasoning (recommended Montreal)
- 1 Tablespoon canola oil
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cognac (I omitted this as I did not have any)
- 1 (8 ounce) package of sliced fresh mushrooms
- 2 cups low sodium beef broth ( used one cup beef broth and 1 cup water to cut down on the salt)
- 1 (1.2 ounce) packet brown gravy mix

Directions

In a large bowl combine beef, 1/4 of the can of cream of mushroom soup (save the rest for later), bread crumbs, egg, onions, an steak seasoning. Mix it thoroughly and shape into oval patties.

Heat the oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the patties on both sides and then transfer to a plate for later.

Add the remaining butter and the cognac (remove from the heat when adding cognac if you choose to use it) saute the mushrooms for 7 to 8 minutes. Add the beef stock and whisk in gravy mix until smooth. Stir in the remaining mushroom soup.

Return patties to skillet and spoon gravy over top. Cover the pan and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.

I choose to serve my steaks with mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes with fresh green beans and shallots! I put the gravy on the potatoes too!! It was so delicious!!

Here is the meat all mixed up.

Here are the patties ready to be browned!

Here are my mushrooms sauteing away!!

Here is the gravy mixture ready to pour over the steaks

Here are the green beans... Yum! so good!

And here are my famous mashed potatoes...

And here are my attempts at photography...


So I had dinner served on a plate and ready to eat when Jason got home from work ( I know barf! I am such the little 50's wife at times!) And to my surprise when he walked in the door he had these...

Aww shucks! How sweet is that!! LOL ok you can all barf now...

Well I hope you all have a wonderful night!

Sinfully yours,

Heather

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Valentine's Day Cookies!

I woke up this morning to these beautiful flowers from Jason! They are beautiful and almost tiger stripped.




After I got these it really put in me in the mood to make some Valentine's sugar cookies...
So that is what I did... And I made some racy ones that were panties!! For the man in my life who loves him some booty! I made the booty cookie!!



So Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! I plan to make some Valentine's cupcakes as well!!

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