Fruit Upside Down Cake

Everyone has heard of Pineapple upside down cake. You don't have to make an upside down cake just with pineapple. This is one of my family's favorite fruit topped cake recipes. You can use just about any kind of fruit you like. I generally make it with berries. I like cranberries and blueberries mixed together. But I've made this with peaches, both canned and fresh, strawberries, raspberries alone and together, sometimes fresh and sometimes frozen. The one in the picture is made with frozen fruit, blueberries, strawberries and cranberries, evenly mixed.

Fruity Upside Down Cake

Preheat oven to 350F. Generously grease a 10 inch spring form pan. Set aside.

Fruit Topping:

3 cups of prepared fruit, fresh or frozen
2 tablespoons of butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon all spice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

In a small bowl blend butter, sugar and spices until crumbly and well blended. Sprinkle into the bottom of the prepared pan. Cover bottom with even layer of fruit. Set aside.

Cake:

1/4 cup of butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk

With electric mixer cream together butter and sugar until lemon yellow in color. Add eggs, one at a time mixing well between each. Mix in vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to egg mixture, alternating with dry ingredients. Mixing well between each addition.

Spoon batter over fruit. Place pan on cookie sheet to catch any syrup that drips out. Bake about 40 - 45 minutes, until tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool on rake, run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen from the pan. Invert onto serving platter.

Serves 8 - 10.

Fast, Easy and Delicious

Casseroles have really gone out of style in terms of food. But I love casseroles. They usually contain at least one vegetable and a protein. My favorite part of a casserole is the leftovers. My husband eats all the time, and by all the time I mean, his meal starts in the morning when he awakens and lasts until he falls asleep at night. He easily eats every two hours. So leftovers in my house rarely go to waste. Casseroles are the best way to get him to eat vegetables. If I have a left over roast for example, he'll eat up the meat but will never eat the leftover veggies or even potatoes. If it's all mixed up in a casserole, he gets veggies with each serving! Needless to say, I'm always trying to create new and different casseroles. This was a very successful casserole experiment that incorporates pizza ingredients.

Upside Down Pizza Casserole

2 pounds of lean ground beef
2 medium onions, chopped
1 medium pepper, red or green, your preference
1 clove garlic, minced, add more if you prefer
1 teaspoon Italian Herb seasoning
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 cups of prepared spaghetti sauce, preferably meatless

Preheat oven to 400F. In a large skillet brown meat, breaking it up with the spoon as it cooks. Drain off fat and liquid. Discard. Add onion, peppers, garlic and herbs. Stir in spaghetti sauce. Bring to a boil. Simmer about 10 - 15 minutes until thickened.

Prepare crust mix

Mix 1 cup of milk, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and 2 eggs with an electric mixer on medium speed until well beaten, about 1 minute. To this add 1 cup of all purpose or whole wheat flour and about 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Mix on medium speed for about two minutes. When the meat mixture is ready pour in to an ungreased 9 x 13 pan. Top meat mixture with 2 cups of shredded mozzarella cheese. pour crust mix over top. Sprinkle with about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese. Bake in preheated over about 30 - 35 minutes until the crust is lightly browned and looks bubbled up. Let sit about 5 minutes. Serve with salad. Makes about 6 - 8 servings

Tropical Carrot Cake Surprise

When it comes to family gatherings, I'm usually the baker. For Christmas I made cheesecake, a family favorite and chocolate chocolate chip cake. But for New Years' I wanted something different. I didn't want anything too sweet so I decided on a carrot cake with a twist. It came out great and there was hardly any left when I went to take a picture of it! This is a little time consuming, due to the ingredients and the surprise, but it's well worth it. Enjoy!

Tropical Carrot Cake Surprise

Filling

8 ounces of cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat all ingredients with an electric mixer until smooth. Set a side.


Cake

1 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups unbleached flour
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ginger
2 cups finely shredded carrots
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup raisins

Grease and flour a bundt pan. Preheat oven to 350F

Mix oil, eggs, brown sugar until blended, beat at medium high speed with electric mixer for 1 minute. Stir in flour, cinnamon, baking soda, vanilla, salt and ginger. Beat until well blended. Fold in carrots, pineapple, nuts and raisins.

Place all but about two cups of batter in cake pan. Spread filling evenly over batter. Cover with remaining cake batter. Bake 50 - 55 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for ten minutes. Remove from pan, cool completely.

Frost when cake is completely cooled.

Cream Cheese Drizzle Frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 -3 tablespoons milk
1 - 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat cream cheese with electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Add milk if necessary. Beat in vanilla and 1 cup of sugar. Beat until smooth and the consistency is right. Should be thick enough to run down side of cake but not run off cake completely. Add sugar as needed to arrive at the right thickness. Pour over cake.

Serves 10 - 12