Pioneer Woman Pineapple Upside Down Cake

One of my favorite places to get ideas and recipes to cook is out of my Pioneer Woman cookbook. If you have never had the chance to try one of her recipes, do yourself a favor and take a side trip to her web site http://thepioneerwoman.com/ and see what you like (there is plenty!) A fellow blogger, Pinke Post is putting together a linky party in which you post your favorite Pioneer Woman recipe and the link back to her site in celebration of Pioneer Woman's new cooking show premiering tomorrow on the Food Network. It just so happens that last night I made Pineapple Upside Down Cake using her recipe, and watched everyone fight over getting a piece, so I'm posting the recipe for everyone to enjoy!



Ingredients

2 1/ cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups milk
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1- 20oz can sliced pineapple, 2 tablespoons juice kept back
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
Maraschino cherries


1) Preheat the oven to 350

2) Make the cake batter in a mixer. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, 1/2 stick of the butter, shortening, milk, eggs, vanilla and the 2 tablespoons pineapple juice.

3) Mix until well combined.

4) Melt the other 1/2 of the stick of butter in a 12 inch cast iron skillet over medium heat. Make sure that the butter is melted and covers all of the pan. Sprinkle the brown sugar over the melted butter evenly and let the butter soak into the sugar and start to bubble.

5) Turn off the heat at this point and remove the pan from the heat. Put the pineapple slices on top of the brown sugar and the cherries in the center of the pineapple.

6) Slowly pour the cake batter over the pineapples so you don't move the cherries around.

7) Bake for 30-40 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean of the center of the cake.

8) When done take a knife around the edge of the pan and place a metal cake plate upside down on the skillet and turn everything upside down. Remember to use hot pads!

If any of the cake sticks just use the knife to take it out of the pan and put back with the rest of the cake, this has happened to me, but everyone is so busy trying to get a piece they never notice.

I would have added pictures of the final product, but it is all gone! So you will just have to trust me that this is a yummy dessert!

Almost back to normal

Well, it looks like in a few weeks all will be back to somewhat normal around our place.

For those that don't know, back in June our hired help up and quit one Friday morning leaving me to fill in not only on the ranch but with our contract business removing trespass livestock off the neighboring coal mine. This has left not much time for me to blog or for that matter cook, keep house and do school work! Well my time as the hubby's full time employee looks to be coming to an end in about 2 weeks! We have finally found someone to help out full time again. Which means I get to go back to being chief cook and bottle washer, mom, teacher and part time help!
Considering we home-school and I'm the teacher, my days will still be filled up, but I know this routine better and I love being able to teach my own girls.
That also means that I'm going to be able to devote more time to my blog again! Can't believe that August is almost over and we are looking to pull our calves in to wean in two more weeks and then sell in about a month! Not sure where all the time has gone this year, but I know for a fact that our summer has passed by at lighting speed.