Pineapple Upside Down Cupcakes

I believe that I am in the cupcake mood! The first cupcakes I made, the post before this, were made from scratch. These cupcakes however are made from a box cake mix. They turned out really delicious! I made four different kinds, cinnamon, chocolate chip, plain white cake, and pineapple upside down cupcakes. When you use the box cake mix you can add any  flavors to the batter, if you want to make multiple flavors out of one box than just separate the batter in to different bowls once mixed and then put in to the pan. The ones I am particularly proud of are the pineapple upside down cup cake ones.

As I did my research afterwards, I found that this is a common cupcake to make. However, for now I will appreciate them for what they are...Easy to make! So some recipes call for the whole pineapple slices or you can use the cut slices, either way I think it will be fine. Also you can use the whole cherry or half of one. The preference is yours.

Ingredients

1 can of pineapple slices or whole pineapple slices

1 box cake mix (yellow or white) or follow previous post for scratch made cup cakes

1 jar of maraschino cherries 

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2 stick of butter

To prepare the pans, you are going to spray them or grease them with butter and flower. It works either way. I did not try this recipe with wrappers because eventually you bottom is your top. Than you want to lay the pineapple down in the bottom of the pan with a cherry in the middle.

 Then sprinkle brown sugar on top of the cherry and pineapple and 1/2 tsp of butter. Now you make ask how much is a sprinkle. Well really this is going to bind everything together so enough to where everything is dusted with a little extra, you don't want to completely cover the fruit, than you run the risk of burning the sugar or even creating a really big mess :) 

Now once you have done this you want to place the pan in to oven at 350 F until the brown sugar and better have melted. **Keep and eye on it, should take but a minute or two** You don't want it to be bubbling just melted. Than add your cake batter on top of the melted sugar and then bake according to the directions on the box or in the previous post.

Once the timer has gone off, you want to flip the cupcakes over on to another pan or plate that way they can cool properly. If you let them cool in the pan, you run the risk of not being able to get the cupcake out of the cupcake pan. You can serve them hot or cold.

I served them with an icing from Paula Deen's Website. You have to scroll to to bottom of her page to review it. Here is how to make it. I added about 1 tsp of vanilla extract to mine (DON'T USE IMITATION!), just something about vanilla that cuts the sweetness just enough to be perfect.

Pineapple Buttercream Frosting: Yield: about 2 cups

1/2 pound butter, softened
2 tablespoons reserved pineapple juice
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Beat all the ingredients in a large bowl until well combined.

What is your favorite cupcake??? 

Happy Cooking!

Genoise Cupcakes with Lemon Icing

I am definitely getting better at this baking thing. So I had the wild thought that I would try my hands at cupcakes, and not from a box cupcakes! I was feeling pretty proud of myself as I was making the batter, however they ended up a little dry. This was because I was using a cake recipe and when you make cupcakes you need to lessen the time. They still turned out delicious, which is surprising!  So needless to say this might be a full proof type of recipe.

This came from the Julia Child's Kitchen Wisdom book. And can you really go that wrong with Julia Child? Here's the recipe below, if you are making the cake than cook at 350 F for 30-35 minutes. If your making cupcakes than you only want to bake for only 15 minutes, same temp as the cake. Look below for the icing recipe. It can be used for anything!

Genoise Cake

1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup plain bleached cake flour (shifted)

1 tbs plus 1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tabs salt

1/4 cup warm clarified butter

4 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F, slide rack onto the lower middle level, and prepare your pan. To prepare the pan smear inside and sides lightly with softened butter. Pour 1/4 cup cake flour into pan, shake and turn in all directions to cover surface completely, turn pan upside down and bang out excess flour. 

Shift flour with 1 tabs sugar and salt and reserve the clarified butter in a 2 quart bowl. Beat the eggs in your mixer bowl with the remaining sugar and vanilla until you have formed the ribbon. At once, rapidly sift on and fold in a quarter of the flour, then half rest of the flour, and the finally all of it. Fold a large plop of this cake batter into the clarified butter and the fold it back into the batter. Turn batter into pan or into cupcakes pans no more than half way or  1/4 inch from the rim. Let them cook for the time stated above. Before you ice let the cake or cupcakes cool. 

Lemon Icing

1/4 cup of butter

3 cups of powdered sugar

2-3 tabs of lemon juice

You can hand beat the icing but if you have a mixer you can do it to. You want a nice firm icing so if it is a bit runny than add more sugar till properly thicken. 

You can also at fruits and chocolates to either the batter or the icing to create a variety. 

Enjoy!!!