Cake Testing - Pineapple upside down rum cake

I recently tested out this recipe from cdkitchen.com. (I have had pretty good luck with their recipes)  It was for a Pineapple Upside Down Rum Cake.  My co-worker has been asking for a cake like this since I first started the cake decorating classes back in August 2010.  I have never made a rum cake or a pineapple upside down cake before and so I had no idea how to tell if this was a good recipe or not. 

I purchased this adorable individual pineapple upside down cake pan from Amazon.  Well, my co-workers birthday was yesterday so although the cake was not delivered to him on his actual birthday due to snow...I baked the recipe last night and made one pan of these.  (I had left over batter, but was way too lazy to bake it up.)

I have a pineapple allergy so I made three with pineapple rings and made three like regular rum cakes.  I used Myer dark rum and while it was pretty expensive I read up and found that this was a recommended dark rum for baking with.  Remember when cooking with liquor - you are cooking out the alcohol and are being left with the taste/flavor.  You don't want something that is cheap and tastes gross...it is good to put your money into what will soon be in put to the test on your taste buds. 



Without delicious pineapple :(

 It was not a hard batter to make it was difficult to put into the pans because it was a thicker batter and did not pour and settle like a typical boxed cake mix.  The difficulty to this recipe was really that it had multiple components with the glaze, fruit, and batter.  I baked it 5 minutes less than the recipe called for and when I did the toothpick test the cake was still gooey.  I let it bake for the remaining 5 minutes and although the cake is still moist...it probably could have cooked for a couple minutes less. 

I like my rum cake rummy so I also poked some holes into the bottom of the cakes and put a little of the left over glaze on the bottom as well.  Overall, I really liked the recipe it had really nice flavor and texture.  My co-worker had a great suggestion for me to add peach rings to the bottom of the pan as a substitute for the pineapple I am allergic to.  I am definitely going to make it again and try that out!


The birthday boy's cake...two cherries instead of just one!



Tip for Tuesday ~ Online Sources

I get all kinds of ideas online.  I also do a whole lot of my supply shopping online.  Here are some of my favorite online sources and what I use them for. 

Knitting-warehouse.com
This is my go to resource for buying crochet supplies online.  My favorite products on this site are the travel OK bamboo crochet hooks, Caron's simply soft and simply soft eco yarns, and Bernat's satin yarn.  My all-time favorite purchase was the Eagle good to go knitting tote which unfortunately the website doesn't carry anymore.  I would highly recommend getting one if you can find it somewhere!

wilton.com is my go to for all things cake decorating.  From ideas, techniques, to purchase of specialty cake pans I check this site to see if I can find it here.

goodybeads.com
I get many of my beads here.  My favorites from this site are the lamp work beads, the metal spacers, and metal round beads.

crochetpatterncentral.com has a huge library of free patterns for crochet.  I tend to scan this website for ideas when starting something I have never made before.  I usually get an idea of how it is put together and then change it up with colors and pattern to get exactly what I had in mind.  For the most part I have had success with the patterns and have had very little failures.  Tip: (pretty much all yarn brand websites also have a free pattern section for both crochet and knit.)

ehow.com is a vastly useful site.  I have used it to get everything from instructions on how to recover lamps and dining room chairs to making my own stencils.  I love browsing through ehow to research projects that are on my list and to find shortcuts and directions on things I haven't done before.