pineapple upside-down cake

"A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie."
-Tenneva Jordan

Mother's Day is always somewhat of a blur; I mean, spending the 2 weeks leading up to the weekend with nothing but caffeine running through one's veins and a mountain of books strewn across every flat surface in an attempt to teach oneself a semester's worth of financial math is enough to leave one feeling exhausted and irritable, let alone in the right state of my mind to remember such an event even happens.

But this year is this last year my grandmother will be spending with us here in the States, so mom wanted to make it special.

And, since she's my mum and all, I figured the least I could do was help a bit.

It was nothing terribly fancy; just a big brunch at our place with the four of us, and my aunt and uncle and cousins came by as well. Mom did the cooking - some [incredible] Pakistani food she knew my grandmother would enjoy - and I the baking and dessert - a few batches of buttermilk scones, shir berenj, and a simple, classic pineapple upside-down cake.

Nine people, ten dishes, and a small get-together to celebrate the women in our lives.

[Plus, a lovely way to get back some of the energy finals drained out of me.]

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Adapted from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home.

For the pan schmear, you'll need:

• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 tbsp honey
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp dark rum [substitute with rum extract if desired]
• vanilla extract 
• pinch of salt

For the cake, you'll need:

• 1 pineapple, chopped into equal-sized pieces [alternately, 1 can of pineapple rings will do]
• 1 1/3 cups cake flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp milk

Preheat oven to 350F and grease and flour a 9-inch cake pan [not a springform pan].

To prepare the schmear:

Beat the butter, honey, brown sugar, rum, and vanilla on medium speed until smooth and well-blended. Spread 1/3-1/2 cup of the schmear over the bottom of the prepared cake pan, and sprinkle lightly with salt. (The remaining schmear can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks or frozen up to 1 month).

Slice the pineapple (or drain from the can). Beginning at the perimeter of the pan, make an overlapping ring of pineapple slices with the curved side facing out. Make a second ring inside the first, overlapping the slices in the opposite direction. Work your way toward the center of the pan until bottom of the pan is covered. Set pan aside.

To prepare the cake:

Sift flour and baking powder and set aside. Beat butter and sugar and mix on low speed to combine, then medium speed for about 3 mins until light and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions. Beat in the milk. Add the flour mixture in three batches, betting until just combined.

Gently pour the batter into the pan and spread over the pineapple. Bake for 15 mins, rotate the pan for an even browning, and bake for another 20-25 mins. Cool the cake in the pan atop a cooling rack for 20-30 mins. Invert the cake on a serving platter and serve warm.

The recipe actually comes from Thomas Keller's wonderful Ad Hoc at Home, one of four cookbooks published in the spirit of The French Laundry. I've not yet had the opportunity to dine at TFL myself, but I've been a longtime fan of Mr. Keller and this particular cookbook [it is, needless to say, among the 80 sitting on the shelf]. I typically do not offer recipes that I've used directly from printed books, but this one has been floating about the web for a while now, so I felt it was alright to share with you.

Which is good news, to be sure, as the cake is wonderful. Light, soft, tangy, and deliciously buttery. The shmear is absolute perfection, and I much prefer it to the typical caramelization required in a pineapple upside-down cake.

I lack a 9-inch silicone pan and so went with a regular pan, and must include a word of caution: the shmear works better with the silicone. If you are going to be using a normal pan, be generous with buttering it up prior.

In any case, this one turned out just fine. But why pineapple upside-down cake? Well, easy.

Mum's favorite.

I'm now back at the apartment, having left the 'rents behind earlier this afternoon in order to get a bit of work-time in this week, and am very much enjoying the quiet. It'll be a slow week, particularly since I'm here by myself for the time being, but one that I plan on spending with a few good books and a few good meals.

Although, I'm not sure any will match up to mum's quality of cooking, but I've got tons of time still for her to teach me. And maybe next year, I'll be the one cooking for Mother's Day.

6 [layers] x 4 [hungry people] - 3 [feet tall] = 21 [years old]

Ah, birthday season.

It has begun.

Naturally, the start of birthday season always coincides splendidly with finals, which is both hideously inconvenient and a wonderful break from studying.

But since it's Noosh's birthday, the break is always, always welcome.

Though, I suppose that after spending the vast majority of our Saturday night writing and editing term papers along with Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother breaks every thirty or so minutes, but it's okay since I started and finished a rather decently executed 8-page political theory essay in a grand total of 6 hours, I think today's lunch and subsequent sugar coma were well-deserved.

Noosh's rents came up today and took us out for a fantastic lunch at Outback, which was quite literally the first time in weeks that she and I had a meal that didn't involve items of questionable edibleness haphazardly thrown together in an attempt to fashion what few would call any semblance of a plate of food, so I was pretty damn pleased. I mean, salmon on rice pilaf with broccoli? It was like a holiday miracle, I kid you not. 

I feel unbelievably rejuvenated now and have this delusion that I possess the strength necessary to stare down my metaphysics term paper with the utmost confidence. By that I mean I may not actually pass out from sheer terror anymore.

Anyway, lunch was great [the whole 'real food' thing], and then we came back to the apartment for merriment and cake.


And so we ate. And ate. And ate some more.

And I'm still reeling from all the sugar. [What else is new.]

Fall Hummingbird Cake
Adapted from Sweetapolita and For the Love of Food.
Makes one three-layer 9-inch cake.

For the cake, you'll need:

• 3 cups flour
• 2 cups light brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup pumpkin
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 8-oz can crushed pineapple, with juice

For the maple cream cheese frosting, you'll need:

• 2 8-oz packages cream cheese, at room temperature and cut into cubes
• 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 5 cups powdered sugar

To prepare the hummingbird cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and grease and flour three 9-inch cake pans. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat eggs and oil on medium speed until frothy, about a minute. Add in pumpkin, bananas, and pineapple and mix until well-blended, 3-4 minutes. Remove the bowl from the stand. In a separate bowl, sift flour, sugar, spices, salt, and baking soda. Dump flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until barely incorporated. Stir in pecans and mix until just combined.

Divide batter among the three pans. Bake for 25 minutes, or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool completely before frosting.


To prepare the maple cream cheese frosting:
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter, maple syrup, and vanilla on medium speed until well-mixed. Reduce speed to low and gradually add in powdered sugar. Beat until the frosting fluffs up a bit, about 3 minutes. Add in the cream cheese all at once, increase speed to medium-high, and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Refrigerate frosting until using.


To assemble the cake:
Place one of the three layers on the serving plate. Frost top of the layer with a generous amount of frosting. Repeat with the second and third layers, and use remaining frosting to frost the sides of the cake. Refrigerate cake until serving. Garnish with chopped pecans, if desired.

Alright, so my cake was the approximate size of a small child. And was also 6 layers tall. And it could probably feed a small country. With leftovers remaining.

What I did was bake the cake twice over - used the same three pans for the second round of batter, and I was left with six, rather sizable, layers of hummingbird cake. I let them cool completely, and then got to frosting, the recipe for which I increased by 50% [I'll let you do the math on this one].

Now, a word of caution: if you're going to make a 6-layer cake, you can not assemble the entire thing all at once. I initially did all 6 layers, and the mess was teetering over worse than the tower of Pisa. I almost had a mental breakdown, and then decided to just remove two layers. Instead of throwing them away, I stuck them on a plate and figured I'd just have two cakes [of two awkwardly-different heights]. The cake with four layers was pretty stable, so I went ahead and frosted it completely. Then I decided that, no, I am not going to sit here and allow physics to destroy all of my dreams and happiness, so I stuck the four-layered cake in the freezer for about an hour and a half [stuck the other two in the fridge during this time], then placed the two refrigerated layers on top, refrosted the top two layers, and stuck it back into the freezer to firm up completely.

So, if you, dear reader, hope to make a 6-layered cake, I would do the following:

1. assemble and frost four layers, sides and all 
2. wrap remaining two layers in clingwrap and allow them to mellow out on the counter
3. place frosted cake in freezer for 1.5 hours
4. frost and add final two layers to frozen cake [note that frosting blends seamlessly with what has been done prior]
5. place 6-layer, frosted cake in freezer for another 2 hours
6. transfer frozen cake to the fridge for at least 4 hours before serving, so that it has a chance to thaw and isn't an unpleasant experience to eat

Yes, it is a time-consuming process, as all layer cakes are loathe to be, so make sure to keep in mind the time you'll need to set aside to make it happen.

You could also always just go with the three-layer, but the six-layer is far more enjoyable to slice.

As for decoration, I just purchased some fake flowers from Michaels, trimmed them off of the stalk, and arranged them on top. Chopped up some walnuts for some sort of aesthetic flair - rocks maybe? I'm really not quite sure - and it ended up looking more like a wedding cake than a birthday cake. But the addition of candles toned down the exuberant amounts of class radiating off of the cake, so it was all good.

#sarcasm

Anyway, Noosh and her famfam loved it, so I figured it was a success in the end.

And finally, my darling Farnoosh, most amazing roommate and best friend one could wish for in the most epic bromance that ever was, I hope you had an absolutely wonderful 21st birthday [despite the fact that you are sitting next to me working on an ethics term paper], and I'm warning you now that once you turn it in, we are in for a night of a How I Met Your Mother marathon. Prepare yourself.

As for later this week, I'll be at the apartment until Friday when I'm finally off for break. I have this vague notion that the cousins and I are heading to NYC next week, but I'm fuzzy on some all of the details. But at least I have a few weeks to spend with the family before I'm back here for intercession.

And sometime in between there are about 3 more birthdays needing to be celebrated, so at least there's weight-gain to look forward to.

pineapple-coconut upside-down cake

An entire post not centered around my shenanigans in Spain?! I thought I'd never see this day. Though I have to say, it's nice not having to sift through hundreds upon hundreds of photos of specific cathedrals, landmarks, or meals. Enjoyable, but time-consuming nonetheless.

Mom's birthday was last Friday, the day before I left for home. I was planning on baking this cake earlier in the week, but after some dramarama at JFK [unsurprising, since it's JFK] that left me in NY a day longer than expected, coupled with lingering jetlag that has me taking siestas every few hours like it's my job, I wasn't fully mentally competent enough to be handling an oven until this afternoon.

I prefer to peel my pineapple off the top and eat them like a side. But the normal individual usually leaves it on the top of the cake. It's your prerogative, really.

Still, any day is a good day for birthday cake, even if it is a bit belated. And when mom loves it despite the tardiness, it's all good in the neighborhood.

[It helps that she enjoyed my travel presents of a ceramic salt jar, fleur de sel, and hot paprika, but nuances.]

Pineapple-Coconut Upside-Down Cake
Adapted from My Recipes

You'll need:

• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 12 oz sliced pineapple [preferably fresh, but canned works as well]
• 1 cup sweetened coconut flakes
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup mashed banana [about 1 whole banana]
• 2 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup pineapple juice

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and grease the sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Pour the melted butter onto the bottom of the pan and tilt pan so the butter spreads evenly over the base. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the butter. Layer the sliced pineapple over the brown sugar, covering as much of the surface as possible. Sprinkle coconut flakes over the pineapple and set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine banana, oil, egg, and pineapple juice and mix until blended. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and whisk until fully incorporated. Spoon the batter evenly over the top of the coconut flakes and spread gently, trying not to pull up any of the coconut flakes.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until top is golden-brown. Let cake cool in pan for at least 20 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. Serve warm or at room temperature.

This cake was, initially, somewhat of a struggle. I'm not talking about the actual baking, that itself was easy. The problem was with mom's desire for a chocolate cake. But after having spent many an art class battling with unreliable WiFi to search for the perfect birthday cake, there was no way I was going to give in. So I stuck by my principles, assured her that she would fall head-over-heels in love with it, and baked it.

And, in the end, the look of sheer bliss on her face when she took a bite said it all.

In other news, I'm pretty happy to be back home. Not that I don't miss Valencia terribly, but it's rather luxurious having AC again. Nevertheless, I'll be heading back to Cville this Sunday for the remainder of the summer, and since I'll be living alone for the next 6-odd weeks, I'm not sure that I'll have many reasons to be baking.

[Knowing me, though, I won't need any.]


In other, other news, I'm really enjoying being back in the land of video games. Not that I didn't test out a bit of AC on Zach's host-brothers' PS3 on occasion [once], but Ezio is pretty hard to take seriously when speaking in Spanish [though he provided some much-needed amusement, at the time]. But I must say, sucking epically at Portal 2 has been one of the highlights of my week so far.

Not that, you know, I'm bad at video games [because I'm not]. It's just that I can't seem to wrap my head around a game whose end goal it is to defy the laws of space. Making portals left and right, opening up pathways from the ceiling to the adjacent wall, maneuvering across hundreds of feet by use of otherwise-impossible feats of momentum... My semester of astronomy refuses to let me see past the implausibility.



-snort-