Pineapple upside down cake

We both love this cake and it has turned into the standard birthday cake for us. It helps that we don't need to ice it and so its EZ! I have read some recipes that don't actually make a caramel in the first step, I suspect these are the ones that look very white in the end, I prefer this "old-fashioned" one that we found on simplyrecipes.com.

Caramel Topping ingredients:

• 1 cup of firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter
• 1 can of pineapple slices

Cake ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 6 Tbsp cake flour
• 6 Tbsp of ground almonds (from about 2 oz of whole almonds)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups of sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup sour cream

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 325 °F/165 °C. 
2. Make the caramel topping. Take brown sugar and butter and combine and melt in a saucepan on medium heat until sugar dissolves and the mixture is bubbly, this usually takes us about 10 minutes on medium with slightly cooler than RT butter. The mixture gets pretty frothy after the sugar melts, so we just gently swirl it to make sure the butter and sugar are combined. Pour mixture into a 10 inch diameter stick-free cake pan with 2 inch high sides. We used a spring form, these leak. Boo. 
3. Arrange pineapple slices in a single layer on top of the caramel mixture. 
4. Whisk the flours, ground almonds, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, use an electric whisk to beat the sugar and butter together until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Whisk in the vanilla. Add half the dry ingredients then half the sour cream then the rest of the dry ingredients and the rest of the sour cream, whisking in between each.
5. Pour the cake batter over the caramel and pineapple slices
6. Bake cake until tester inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes (we sometimes have to microwave the cake in the end to get it firm, sometimes the center never gets completely firm, I suspect because of the juice from the pineapple). Cool cake in pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Turn cake out onto a platter. Serve warm or at room temperature. (We mos def prefer warm!)

Red Velvet Cake

I got this from here, and it turned out quite delicious. Since I only had one pie foil I only made half the recipe (single layer), but it was delish nonetheless.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 330 g oil
• 240 g buttermilk
• 1 Tablespoon vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 50 g red food coloring
• 300 g all purpose flour
• 400 g sugar
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 C.
2. Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans.
3. Lightly stir eggs in a medium bowl with a wire whisk. Add remaining liquid ingredients and stir together with whisk until blended. Set aside.
4. Place all the dry ingredients in your food processor and stir together.
5. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium-high for about a minute or until completely combined.
6. Pour into cake pans and then drop the pans on the counter a few times to release any air bubbles.
7. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
8. After about ten minutes, remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack. I also cover in plastic wrap while the cakes cool.
9. Then make the frosting.
10. Frost!

Banana Bread

We had four horribly over ripe bananas that we were loathe to throw away. So we made banana bread.

We mostly followed the recipe outlined here, but we initially started on another recipe and so the order of addition of ingredients is slightly different from the recipe in the link.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (110 g) butter

1 cup (210 g) white sugar

2 eggs

4 ripe bananas (original recipe called for 3)

2 cups (220 g) All-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda (We didn't have any, so skipped)

1 teaspoon baking powder (used double to accomodate missing soda)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Dribble (maybe 1/2 teaspoon) vanilla essence

We didn't have any walnuts so we skipped that too.

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 175 C.
2. (What we did) Melt the butter in the microwave and mash in the bananas. Add the eggs, one at a time and stir. Then mix in the sugar. The original recipe: In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, stir in the mashed bananas.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 
4. Mix together the banana mixture and the flour mixture till just combined. 
5. Butter the inside of the baking dish and add the batter to the dish. The batter seemed much too runny but given the end result I'm going to assume this is a good thing.
6. Bake for 60 minutes. Test with knife before taking out of oven. You might want to bake it slightly shorter if you use coarser flour, like whole wheat or something. Check at 50 minutes.

Runny cake batter

Warm Strawberry Crumb Cake

This we got from the Huffington Post. It's delicioulous.
Ingredients
Strawberry filling

• 3 pound(s) strawberries, hulled and halved 8 cups
• 1/2 cup(s) sugar
• 2 tablespoon(s) freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 1/2 tablespoon(s) cornstarch dissolved in 2 1/2 tablespoons of water
• 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

Crumble

• 1/2 cup(s) lightly packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup(s) plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• pinch(s) of salt
• 4 tablespoon(s) unsalted butter, cubed and chilled

Dough

• 2 1/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon(s) baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon(s) salt
• 1 stick(s) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cup(s) sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon(s) pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup(s) buttermilk

Method

1. Make the Filling: Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large bowl, toss the strawberries with the sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch slurry and vanilla seeds and let stand until the berries release some of their juices, about 30 minutes. Pour the fruit filling into a 9-by-13-inch glass or ceramic baking dish set on a sturdy baking sheet.
2. Meanwhile, Make the Crumb Topping: In a medium bowl, mix all of the ingredients with your fingers until a coarse meal forms; press into small clumps.
3. Make the Cake: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter with the sugar at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions. Beat in the vanilla extract and scrape down the bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the batter in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk.
4. Spoon the batter over the fruit filling, spreading it to the edge. Sprinkle with the crumb topping. Bake in the center of the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the fruit is bubbling, the crumb topping is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Transfer to a rack to cool slightly. Serve the crumb cake warm or at room temperature.

Semlor

This we got from semlor.nu.
Bullar

• 50 gram jäst (för söta degar)
• 175 gram smör
• 5dl mjölk
• 2 dl socker (160g)
• 2 tsk stött kardemumma
• 1 tsk salt
• ca 1,5 l vetemjöl special (900g)

Fyllning

• 200 gram mandelmassa
• 8-9 dl vispgrädde
• (3 msk socker)

Gör så här:
20 stora semlor

1. Smält smöret i en kastrull och tillsätt mjölken. Värm till 37 grader. Smula i jästen i en degbunke och tillsätt kardemumma. Häll över mjölk- och smörblandningen och rör runt tills jästen löst sig. Tillsätt mjölet under knådning, se upp så du inte får för mycket mjöl, då blir bullarna torra och jäser dåligt! Blanda ner salt och socker och arbeta ihop till en smidig deg. Knåda nu degen i ungefär 15 minuter, helst med matberedare/degblandare. Låt degen jäsa till dubbel storlek i bunken, cirka 30 minuter.
2. Ta upp degen på bakbord och dela i bitar om cirka 80 gram. Rulla till bullar och sätt av på plåt med bakplåtspapper eller smord plåt. Låt nu bullarna jäsa till dubbel storlek, cirka 50-60 minuter. OBS! Det är väldigt svårt att säga precis hur länge bullarna ska jäsa - det beror på en mängd saker. Men många jäser bullarna för kort stund och får då torra och kompakta bullar. Låt storleken på bullarna avgöra - de ska minst ha dubblat sin volym.
3. Grädda bullarna i nedre delen av ugnen på 225 grader i cirka 10 minuter. Låt svalna på galler.
4. När bullarna svalnat helt: Skär av ett lock på varje bulle. Gröp ur bullen något med en gaffel. Ta tillvara inkråmet och blanda det med mandelmassan och några matskedar grädde. Rör eller vispa massan slät. Klicka ut mandelfyllningen i alla bullarna. Vispa grädden, eventuellt tillsammans med sockret. Grädden ska vara så tjock att den går att spritsa men inte så tjock att den börjar gryna sig. Fyll en spritspåse med en stor stjärntyll med grädde och spritsa en krans på varje semla. Lägg på locket och pudra semlan rikligt med florsocker innan servering.

För att lyckas bra med dessa semlor tänk på att: Använd vetemjöl med hög proteinhalt - vetemjöl special. Knåda bullarna länge, och med maskin. Jäs ordentligt - dubbel storlek!

Pecan pie

We got this from the back of Karo Corn Syrup.
Ingredients

• 1 cup light corn syrup and molasses
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups pecans
• 1 unbaked pie crust
• 1 tsp bourbon

Preheat the oven at 350. Stir the ingredients with a spoon. Mix in pecans. Pour into pie crust. Bake on center rack of oven for 60 to 70 minutes. Cool for two hours. Store pie in fridge.

Kladdkaka

Enkelt och gott recept på kladdkaka som är mångas favorit. Kladdkaka är gott till efterrätt eller som tårta med grädde till. Prova detta recept som är väl beprövat och som har tydliga steg-för-steg bilder.
Tid: 20 minuters jobb + 20 min i ugnen
6-8 portioner
Ingredienser:

• 100 g smör
• eller margarin
• 2 st ägg
• 2,5 dl strösocker
• 1 msk vaniljsocker
• 3 msk kakao
• 2 dl vetemjöl

Utrustning du behöver:
1 st form med löstagbar kant / springform eller annan form som tål ugn ca 20 cm i diameter
Utrustning som är bra att ha:
elvisp
Gör så här:
Sätt på ugnen på 175°C.

Smält försiktigt smöret (eller margarinet) i en kastrull på spisen eller i en skål i mikron. Det kan vara bra att dela smöret i mindre bitar innan så går det fortare. I mikron kan ca 400 W vara lämplig effekt för att det inte ska skvätta smör.

Låt sedan det smälta smöret stå framme och svalna.

Vispa ägg och socker pösigt med elvisp.

Tillsätt vaniljsocker och kakao och vispa med lägsta hastigheten på elvispen.

Tillsätt mjölet. Tillsätt sist det smälta smöret. Vispa försiktigt till en jämn smet och häll smeten i en rund form som man kan smöra och bröa om man vill.

Grädda i 175°C i ca 20 minuter i mitten av ugnen. Om man vill ha en kladdigare kladdkaka så tar man kortare tid i ugnen.

När kladdkakan är färdiggräddad låter man den svalna och stå kallt tills den ska serveras.