Hang the code, and hang the rules. They're more like guidelines anyway.

For the most part, everything you do in the kitchen can be broken down into two categories: Baking and Cooking.  Oh, and I suppose Cleaning, but that is not something I really enjoy, so it doesn't count.  Now, for the most part Baking and Cooking are very similar, they both start with a some ingredients, and after a bit of fiddling around you have a final product that is (hopefully) much tastier than the sum of its parts.  But it is in the fiddling around that the differences between the two become apparent.  

Cooking, in general, is very flexible.  You don't like cilantro? Use parsley.  You don't have any whole grain mustard?  Use dijon.  If the recipe calls for a spice you don't like or don't have on hand, you can use something else or just alter the ratios of the others to compensate.  Cooking allows you to swap ingredients to your heart's content, on a moment's notice, and based on what you have available at that time.  And once you have a general idea of what you're doing, you barely even need a recipe, just throw together whatever you have on hand, and voila, dinner!

And then there is Baking.  Sure, Baking allows for some personal preferences.  You can substitute dark chocolate chips for semisweet ones, pecans for walnuts, pears for apples, lime for lemon.  But, as you may have noticed based on my examples, you are extremely limited in what you can safely switch.  And then there are the ratios - do not mess with ratios!  Altering the ratios of dry ingredients, or wet-to-dry ingredients, has the potential to severely impact your end result, your kitchen, and your stomach.  

This perilous nature of Baking is the reason why most people will tell you the first rule of Baking is to read the recipe all the way through and check to make sure you have all the necessary ingredients on hand BEFORE beginning to bake.  This is also a good idea when Cooking, especially the first time you are following a recipe, but again, much less crucial.  As this seems like a fairly obvious and straight-forward rule, it may seem silly to have to talk about over the course of four paragraphs, and yet here I am.  This is because time and time again I fail to do this most basic and simple of things.  

Last week, one of our local grocery stores had pineapples on sale for $1.00.  I bought 3 of the ripest ones I could find, because last weekend I "catered" a bridal shower being given by one of Roommate's co-workers and I was making rainbow fruit kebabs (among other things, which I did not take a single picture of, so that is not what this is about).  I only needed one and a half pineapples to make the kebabs, which worked out beautifully as that was the amount of ripe-enough-to-eat-right-away pineapple I had ended up purchasing.  But by Wednesday, the third pineapple was so ripe it was on the verge of oozing pineapple juices all over our counter, and having experienced this once already, I did not feel the need to repeat the process.  

In anticipation of  having to find a use for this third pineapple, earlier in the week I scoured the internet (translation: used the Google) for a pineapple upside down cake recipe.  I have never made nor eaten a pineapple upside down cake before, so I figured it would be a good use of a $1.00 pineapple - if I didn't like it or it was a flop, I was only out $1.00.  I found a recipe that seemed fairly straightforward and lots of other people had had success with, so I filed it away (via Pinterest) and did not give it another thought until Wednesday night at 9:00 pm when I realized the pineapple needed to be used NOW.  And no, it is not terribly uncommon for me to start baking at 9:00 pm, actually I would categorize that as "quite common."

The recipe calls for using a silicone cake pan, I presume because it would be easier to flip a cake out of a flexible pan, but I don't have one and was not going to go buy one for a recipe I had no idea if I would ever use again, so instead I used a well-greased metal cake pan, and it came out beautifully.  The recipe also calls for 1/2 tsp of rum.  We do not have any rum in our house - wine yes, rum no - and I was also not about to go buy a bottle of rum so I could use 1/2 tsp - I just used more vanilla extract.  These were changes I was aware of ahead of time, and I knew I could make them without having much of an impact.  What I failed to notice was the fact that this recipe calls for cake flour, which we did not have.  I do not really know the difference between cake flour and all-purpose flour, but I think it has something to do with protein content, and I know they are not directly interchangeable.  If I had been aware of the need for cake flour (translation: if I had read the list of ingredients all the way through), I would have bought some without hesitation, because I know that is something I will use again.  Fortunately, the Google once again came to my rescue.  If a recipe calls for cake flour and you do not have any, there is a solution:  for each cup of cake flour the recipe calls for, put 2 T of cornstarch in a 1-c measure, then fill the remaining space with all-purpose flour.  This of course requires that you have cornstarch on hand, which fortunately I did, and the cake was saved.

The first step in making this cake is to make a schmear - this is the technical term used in the original recipe.  The recipe for the schmear actually makes enough for two cakes, but if you cut the ingredient amounts in half, the amount of stuff is too little for a stand mixer to be able to mix properly.  Basically you cream together butter, honey, brown sugar, and vanilla (and rum if you have it) until it is smooth, then you spread half of it in the bottom of your cake pan.

Next, you cut up the pineapple and spread the pieces all over the schmear.  I think the easiest way to cut a pineapple is to quarter it, cut out the core (so you have a flat top instead of a pointy top), make a bunch of little slices in the pineapple, and then cut it off the peel.  This is a personal preference, feel free to cut and peel the pineapple however you see fit.  Put the pieces of pineapple overlapping on top of the schmear.

Now it is time to make the cake.  In a separate bowl, sift/whisk together the flour and baking powder (and cornstarch if needed).  In the bowl of the mixer cream together the butter and sugar, then beat in the vanilla and eggs, one at a time.  Beat in the milk (which I also did not have any because it had gone bad earlier in the week and had not been replaced, so I used heavy cream instead), and then beat in the flour mixture, a little but at a time until it is all incorporated.  Scrape it into the pan over the pineapples and schmear.

Bake until a tester of some sort comes out clean, cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 20 - 30 minutes, then invert onto a serving platter (or better yet, invert the serving platter over the cake and then flip that over all at once - this prevents the cake from coming out of the pan prematurely) and serve warm.  Of course, when you start a baking a cake at 9:00 pm, there aren't generally a lot of people to serve a warm cake to, but fortunately the cake keeps at room temperature, and cake makes an excellent breakfast.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Adapted from Sweetcakes Bakeshop, who adapted it from Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home

Schmear:

8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 T honey
1/2 tsp dark rum (I used vanilla)

1 c packed brown sugar (during clean-up I noticed 1/2 c packed brown sugar still in the bag...)

1/4 tsp vanilla 

Kosher salt (oops, completely missed this step...)

1 pineapple

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine all ingredients except for the salt and pineapple, and beat until smooth and well-blended.  Spread 1/3 c of the schmear over the bottom of a 9" silicone cake pan (or a well-greased regular pan).  Sprinkle lightly with salt.  The remaining schmear can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks or frozen for up to 1 month.
2. Cut the pineapple into 1/8" thick slices in whatever manner you see fit.  Starting along the outside edge of the pan, make an overlapping ring of pineapple slices, working all the way to the center of the pan.  There will be some pineapple leftover, do what you will with it.

Cake:

1 1/3 c cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

8 T (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 c plus 2 T sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs

1 T plus 1 tsp milk

1. Sift together flour and baking powder, set aside.
2. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed to combine, then beat on medium speed until light and creamy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.  Mix in vanilla, add eggs one at a time, add milk.  Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, beating until just combined.
3. Pour the batter into the pan and spread over the pineapple.  Bake in preheated 350 oven for 15 minutes.  Rotate the pan, bake for another 20-25 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.  Cool the cake in the pan on a cooling rack for 20-30 mintutes.
4. Run a knife around the edges of the cake, invert onto a serving platter, and serve warm.  Leftover cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.  

The Verdict:

Snafus and substitutions aside, this turned out to be pretty good, although as it is my first taste of pineapple upside down cake I don't really have anything to compare it to. It would most likely be even better if I used the correct ingredients.  

There's one in every family sire. Two in mine, actually. And they always manage to ruin special occasions.

I have two younger sisters.  And while they very rarely ruin special occasions, they do have one quality I just don't understand.  They don't like citrus.  Or they like some citrus, but not all.  Oddly enough, Roommate is the same way, she likes some but not others.  On the other hand, I have yet to meet a citrus I don't like.  The acidity, the tartness, the way it enhances and/or contrasts with other flavors, it's wonderful.

To be fair, there are foods/flavors I don't like at all.  For example, eggs and ham - I dislike their taste, texture, and smell while my youngest sister could probably live quite happily on eggs and ham for the rest of her life.  Eggs do have the redeeming quality of being very important for baking, so in that way only I approve of them.  And yes, I like all other pork products, I just dislike ham.  Actually, citrus and pork tenderloin go quite well together.  But my favorite citrus and ______ combination is citrus and fruit.  Especially citrus and berries.  

Blueberries have never been my favorite berry.  They're fine, they make a lovely muffin and a fine addition to pancakes, but compared to strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries, they always seemed to be missing something flavor-wise on their own.  Or at at least that is what I thought until last summer when my mom brought home a 10-lb box of Michigan blueberries.  I ate them by the handful.  And then I had another handful.  And then maybe just one more.  I made them into fruit salad, muffins, frozen yogurt, all of which were phenomenal. 

Of course, berries that delicious could not last forever, so I had to go back to using their more mundane counterpart, the grocery-store purchased blueberry.  Store-bought blueberries really depend on the recipe and the other ingredients in the recipe to enhance their flavor.  And this is where the glory of citrus comes in.  Combine with the wonder of Pinterest, and you have Lemon-Blueberry-Buttermilk Cake.  It is divine.  Since discovering this recipe about two months ago, I have made it countless times.  Roommate and I devour it at a rate that is really quite unseemly.  But we don't care.  It's that good.

It is important to start with room-temperature butter.  Shockingly, the best way to get room-temperature butter is to set it out on the counter and leave it for a few hours.  This is my preferred method, but sometimes you cannot wait that long.  In that case, you can use the microwave.  Either way, take your room-temperature butter and put it in the mixer bowl with 1 cup MINUS 2 tablespoons sugar and the zest of one lemon and beat it until it gets light and fluffy.

At this point I feel compelled to mention the best way to zest a lemon.  First, it is very important that the lemon be clean, because it is impossible to clean zest once it has been zested.  Or so I imagine, I have never tried.  Second, it is much easier to zest a lemon if it is cold, so keep them in the fridge until you are ready to zest.  Third, use a Microplane grater.  It is to zesting citrus what the immersion blender is to making smooth soup.  It is fantastic.  You should get one.

Once the butter-sugar-zest combo is light and fluffy, add the vanilla and egg and beat until it is all mixed together.  Next, in a separate bowl, toss the blueberries with 1/4 cup flour.  This step may seem unnecessary, but it is actually quite important, because it keeps all the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the cake.  In another separate bowl, whisk together the remaining flour, the salt, and the  baking powder. 

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter-sugar combo, mix until combined, then add half the buttermilk and mix, 1/3 the flour and mix, the rest of the buttermilk and mix, and the rest of the flour and mix.  The batter will be fairly thick and fluffy.  By hand, mix the blueberries into batter, carefully so as to not rupture the berries.  Spread the batter into the baking dish, sprinkle with the remaining sugar.

Bake in a preheated oven until golden brown on top and a knife inserted comes out clean.  The cooking time will vary based on your oven.  The original recipe says 35 minutes but that up to 10 additional minutes may be necessary.  In our oven, it usually takes about 50 minutes, but it is a gas oven and my experience over the last three months is that it takes longer to cook almost everything in a gas oven.  Let cool slightly, then enjoy!

Lemon-Blueberry-Buttermilk Cake

from Alexandra's Kitchen

1/2 c unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 c sugar, divided (2 T and 7/8 c)

zest of 1 lemon

1 egg, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

2 c fresh blueberries

2 c flour, divided (1/4 c and 1 1 3/4 c)

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 c buttermilk

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Cream together butter, 7/8 c sugar, and lemon zest until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg and vanilla.

2.  In a small bowl, toss blueberries and 1/4 c flour, set aside.  In another bowl, whisk remaining flour together with salt and baking powder.  Add four mixture and buttermilk to butter mixture, alternating flour, buttermilk, flour, buttermilk, flour.  

3.  Add in blueberries, stirring gently until all flour is incorporated.  Spread batter into a greased 9x9 baking dish.  Bake until golden brown, at least 35 minutes, but possibly longer.  Let cool 15 minutes before serving.

The Verdict:

I believe I may have mentioned that this gets eaten frequently and in large quantities, this was just the first time I managed to pause long enough to take pictures.  I really am not very good at this food blogger thing, either I forget to take pictures at the beginning, or I forget to take pictures at the end.  And when I do remember to take pictures, they look nothing like the other food pictures you see on the internet.  Regardless of my photography skills, this is delicious.  Especially the sugar crust on top.