Pineapple Upside Down Bundtlets

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Pineapple upside-down cake is one of my childhood favorite desserts, as I mentioned when I made this apricot upside-down cake. Today when I had some leftover pineapple I needed to use up, pineapple upside-down cake came to mind immediately. Instead of making the cake in my cast iron skillet like I usually would, I thought I try making it in these cute little bundt pans I bought a while back. I bought these mini bundt pans a couple of years ago, mostly because I had never seen small bundt pans before and I thought, "How cute, baby bundts!" Yes, I buy bake ware based on looks sometimes, shallow, I know. Anyway because the pans are cute, and I love making individual sized desserts (also for the cute factor), I decided try using them for this cake. The mini bundt pans, made the perfect, individual, pineapple upside-down bundtlets.

 Little baby bundtlets, adorable!

Pineapple Upside Down Bundtlets  
(printable recipe)

Yields 6 one cup mini bundts
Ingredients:

For the topping
4 tablespoons butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 8 ounce can of pineapple slices, drained. Reserve juice.
1/4 cup pecan pieces

For the cake
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
reserved pineapple juice and milk to equal 1/2 cup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 maraschino cherries (Optional, for garnish)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 6 one cup capacity mini bundt cake pan(s) with non stick cooking spray. You can also use the the super mini bundt mold pans or a muffin tin but will have to your adjust cooking time.
For the topping:
Melt the butter in a small glass bowl. Stir in the brown sugar and place bowl in the microwave. Heat for about 30 seconds on high heat just until the sugar melts. Spoon brown sugar evenly into the mini bundt pan molds.
Sprinkle the nuts over the brown sugar mixture, dividing them evenly between each bundt mold
Place one pineapple ring in each mini bundt pan. Depending on the size of your bundt molds, you may have to cut the pineapple rings to fit. 

For the cake batter:
Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg and beat well.
In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add about one-third of the flour
mixture to the sugar and egg mixture, then one-half of the juice and milk mixture and mix
together. Repeat until the flour and juice mixtures are mixed into the batter. Add the vanilla. Blend until smooth. Pour the batter over the pineapple dividing it evenly into each bundt cake mold. Place bundt pan(s) on a baking sheet to catch any overflow while baking. Bake 25 to 28 minutes, less (about 15 minutes) if you have the really mini sized bundt mold pans, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool for 5 minutes. To remove the cakes from the pan, place a sheet of wax paper or
foil over the top of the pan. Place a wire rack face down on top of foil, flip over, and let sit
a few seconds. Lift off the pan. The cakes should remain on the foil or waxed paper.
You may have to spoon some of the nuts and sugar back onto the cakes.
Slice the cherries in half. Place half of a cherry in the middle of each mini bundt cake.

I've noticed recently that mini bundts are suddenly everywhere. I bought these individual 1 cup capacity pans a few years ago. At that time these were the only mini bundts I had seen, but now there are lots of different pans to chose from. You can use any mini bundt pan you have for this recipe, but your cooking times can vary widely.

You can find these pans here

I love my individual bundtlet pans, but I've got my eye on this pan

All in One Holiday Bundt Cake with Sugared Cranberries

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I made Dori Greenspan's all-in-one holiday bundt cake for the first time this week. It's the perfect cake for this time of year. This cake is filled with cranberries, nuts, apple,and pumpkin. Sounds great right! Then you add a maple glaze. Yummm! That's pretty much all the holiday flavors packed into one delicious cake.
To make it even more festive, I topped the cake with some of the sugared cranberries I had leftover from the ICE cupcake cranberry challenge.
I thought this would be the perfect entry for this month Sugar High Friday. Sugar High Fridays started by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess. This month's host is Susan atThe Well Seasoned Cook and the theme is: All that Glitters. Perfect because these cranberries just sparkle like little gems. Check out all the other glitter holiday desserts on here.



All-In_One Holiday Bundt Cake
Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours
(makes one 9- to 10-inch Bundt cake)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoon/5 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups canned unsweetened pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
1 large apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped
1 cup fresh cranberries, halved or coarsely chopped
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped
Optional: Maple syrup icing (see recipe below)

To make the cake:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 9- to 10-inch (about 12-cup) Bundt pan. Do not place the pan on a baking sheet - you want the oven's heat to come up through the Bundt pan's open core.

Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside dry ingredients.

Working with a stand mixer (using a paddle attachment, if you have one), beat the butter and both sugars together at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat for 1 minute after each addition; beat in the vanilla.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the pumpkin and apples - don't be concerned if the mixture looks curdled. Still on low speed, add the dry ingredients, mixing only until the flour is just barely incorporated. Working with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in the cranberries and pecans.

Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with the spatula. Slide the pan into the oven and bake 60 to 70 minutes at 350F, or until a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding. Cool to room temperature on the rack. Drizzle with maple syrup glaze.

Maple syrup glaze:
Sift 6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar into a bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup. Add more maple syrup little by little, until you have an icing that runs nicely off the tip of a spoon - you might need another 1/2 tablespoon to get the right consistency. Put the cooled cake on a sheet of parchment or waxed paper and drizzle with the glaze. Let the glaze set for a few minutes before serving.