Pineapple Coffee Cake

Lately for some odd reason, I haven't a clue why, I have been craving pineapple. Bright and refreshing! I think I am missing summer big time. Everyone is sick and tired of the rain but as soon as it stops the pollen jumps out at you. Fun! I don't have allergies but there is enough pollen in the air to give me a constant itchy nose. Thank good ness for flowers, specifically cherry blossoms, because I could easily skip Spring if not for them. Anyways, I quick search gave me either muffins or coffee cake. I went with Pineapple Coffee Cake from the 1950's 250 Breads, Biscuits, and Rolls. (Muffins may come later.)

Not a lot to this. Had to get buy a can of pineapple. (Now I have a nice bowl of pineapple juice for cocktails!) It does not call for much sugar, definitley not as much I was expecting. Kinda concerned.

Sadly I do not have a ring mold so no party airs will be had.

 A little bit of this...little bit of that..

 I decided to try this cake by hand. No standing mixer this time.

 Mixed nicely together but it does take more time to cut in the shortening with only forks.

No party airs but I tried to get a little bit fancy. I pretty certain I used more than 1 1/2 cups of pineapple.

 It was difficult to try to spread the topping without ruining my beautiful design. Clumps work.

My apartment smells heavenly! Like a summer morning...I just need some coffee.

 It looks so bright and cheerful!

Sometimes I just don't want to wait to taste my experiments but I have learned better. Almost everything I've baked tasted better after it has cooled.

The topping was soft and juicy and the cake layer was dense and a tad dry. I was disappointed at first but then I remembered that it is coffee cake. The cake is suppose to be dry! I just needed the coffee. This was a nice twist on a coffee cake and a welcome change. The pineapple adds just enough sweetness. The best bite has a both the pineapple and the cake.

My Rating: Keeper! Great for a brunch.

Friends and Family Rating: "Oh, this is really good." "Did I like it? I ate a huge piece. It was great!"

Spicy Apple Coffee Cake

Sometimes I just have to move away from cookies. My coworkers don't always agree but I think they secretly like the variety. Flipping through the 1952 pamphlet 250 Breads, Biscuits and Rolls I found this interesting recipe: an apple coffee cake made with cheese... The idea of mixing cheese with apples does not appeal to me even though I know a lot of people who love to add a slice of sharp cheddar cheese to their apple pie. So I gave it a try.

 Short recipe. Looks easy! I just had to get 'nippy' cheese. Somehow I had zero extra sharp cheddar in my house! I am so embarrassed...

I decided to go with the round cake version.

It qualifies as healthy since it has apples in it.

The dough came together very easily. None of the cinnamon was used in the dough so I'm guessing the 'spicy' part of the title has to do with the cheese. I love the bits of cheese peaking through!

 Looking good so far!

I don't know how I made this look so pretty! I'm not known for 'pretty' food, delicious but not always nice to look at. I don't know what happened here bit I'll take it!

And it baked up even prettier! Yeah!

 It looks good and the cake is nice and moist...

....but all in all a bland cake. Even though I used extra sharp cheddar you could barely taste the cheese and all the spice was added to the topping. Traditionally coffee cake is not a very sweet cake but even eating this with coffee could not save it. This might work better as a sheet cake since there would be less cake and more apples.

My Rating: Boring. Probably will not make again.

Friends & Family Rating: I don't know. No one gave me their opinion.

Caramel Cinnamon Muffins

I am not a fan of pumpkin pie so the entire grocery aisle for pumpkin flavored everything annoys me. There are so many other wonderful fall flavors! As I wrote before, concord grapes signal the start of fall for me but there is also cinnamon apple, cranberries, maple syrup, and pecans! This recipe sounded great for a cool autumn day. It is from a 1952 pamphlet by the Culinary Arts Institute, 250 Breads, Biscuits, and Rolls.

This pamphlet is filled with helpful hints and how-to's complete with pictures!

Looks super easy with no fancy ingredients.

I used butter flavored shortening because that is what I had.

 I am so excited! Brown sugar and butter!!

 The batter seemed a little dry while mixing. I hope it is supposed to.

 They turned out beautiful!

 The bottoms were covered in delicious crunchy caramel!

These were very interesting for as simple as the ingredients were. I found the muffin tops a bit bland but when you get a bite of the caramel with it, amazing! The cinnamon flavor was very light. I would probably add more next time. I think these may be even better as mini-muffins so you can get the cinnamon and the caramel all in one bite.

My Rating: Not too bad. I want to try it again with tweaks.

Friends and Family Rating: "So Good!" "I love the cinnamon!"