Saturday, November 5, 2011

Turtle Pie AND Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I'm a horrible blogger/baker. I haven't been making much in terms of sweets and I certainly haven't been updating. School has been boring, like really boring. In psychology I seriously count how many times this one guy says the word like, it is a lot of times. (60 times in one class period(1 1/2 hours long)). It is quite distracting, but I'm easily distracted in that class because it is so boring, the prof has a quiet monotone voice not cool.
I feel guilty about not blogging and then I start feeling guilty because I'm not baking, and its a guilty spiral into shame. Its not like I don't have time to bake, its more like I don't really have anyone to bake for, because I start to feel guilty about making sweets and then eating them all. See just more quilt, I can't get away from it.
This weekend I was feeling sorta home sick, but I'm home so I don't know what to call it really. I was missing our good friends the Erickson family and I thought I'd make a turtle pie because it is Mr. Paul's favorite. I don't feel as guilty about not baking things, even though you don't bake a turtle pie, and it also means that I should blog, so I can stop feeling guilty about that.
I actually started writing this post about a week or so ago and haven't finished it, but it has given me a chance to do more so that I can write more. I have now made pineapple upside down cake as well. My brother and his fiancee came in for a visit this weekend and so I made cake because now there are more people to actually eat it. I have discovered that when Holly (my kitten) is purring he has an on and off switch. All you have to do is put your hand on his face and he stops purring, lift the hand off and he starts up again. It is almost finals week for me and of course all the teachers think that the projects need to be done this week before finals, so I have three papers to write, two posters to make and one test to actually study for. Its kind of a hectic weekend for me. It doesn't help that Holly's favorite place to nap is in my lap. I love that he naps on my lap but it is kind of hard to get things done when you don't want to move and disturb the adorable thing.
The first recipe is for pineapple upside down cake.

Ingredients
1 box of white cake mix
2 cans of pineapple rings
1 jar of maraschino cherries without stems or pits
1/3 cup of melted butter
1 cup of brown sugar

I followed the direction on the cake mix except I used the juice from the pineapples and cherries and instead of just the egg whites I used the whole egg(minus shell of course). And I know that I'm a pastry student and shouldn't be using cake mixes, but they are just so easy, and I'm kind of lazy. What you do first is you preheat the oven to whatever the cake mix tells you to. Then you want to mix the melted butter with the brown sugar, and make sure its nice and moist then spread it as evenly possible on the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Place the pineapple rings in the brown sugar mixture and place a cherry inside each ring. Mix the cake batter and pour over pineapple. Bake.Once the cake is fully baked, take it out of the oven and flip it over onto a cookie sheet and let cool. Once it has had time to cool enough that you can lift the pan up without gloves, then remove the pan. Serve and enjoy.

Now the Turtle Pie recipe might be a little tricky.

Ingredients
1 pre-made graham cracker crust, again I'm a little lazy and it is just convenient

Chocolate mouse
5 oz semi-sweet Bakers chocolate
2 egg whites
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp butter
2/3 cup heavy cream

Caramel Sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1 oz butter
1/4 cup warmed heavy cream
Pecans as needed

In a small heavy bottomed pan, caramelize the sugar. Put the sugar in the bottom of the pan and turn to high heat, make sure that there is not an area of the pan that is not covered by sugar. Once all the sugar has dissolved and is a nice caramel color, remove from heat and add the butter. It will bubble up, keep stirring, once the butter has dissolved add the warmed heavy cream, again it will bubble up, but keep stirring. In the bottom of you pie crust place pieces of pecans and then pour the caramel over the pecans.
Next make the chocolate mouse, place the chocolate and butter into a bowl and heat in the microwave slowly until the chocolate has melted. Make sure not to over heat the chocolate. While heating the chocolate whip the egg whites until they are foamy and white. Gradually add the sugar and continue to whip until medium to stiff peak. Then whip the heavy cream until it has a medium peak, in a separate bowl. Once the chocolate has melted and is a little warm add the egg yolk. And mix thoroughly. Then add the heavy cream 1/3 at a time and mix carefully. Do the same with the egg whites/meringue. Finally pour over caramel and pecans then refrigerate or freeze until needed.

No comments:

Post a Comment