As you all might have guessed, CAKE was to be a big part of my mother’s 90th birthday celebration, and my niece, Amy, was in charge. And let me tell you, she was the right person for the job. Amy is a great cook and a talented baker. But beyond that, she brings heart to the task, something not every cook is able to do. She started baking on Saturday night and continued into Sunday, the day of the party.

She made Pinapple Upside-Down Cupcakes and a Vintage Southern Tea Room Caramel Cake. Sound good? They were. And she has generously agreed to share her recipes with us here. So, bakers, from Amy to you, I give you:

Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes

from Taste of Home, April/May 2007

6 tbsp butter, cubed

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tbsp light corn syrup

1 small pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch slices

12 maraschino cherries, well drained

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Whipped cream, optional

Line greased jumbo muffin cups with waxed paper (optional); grease paper and set aside. In a small saucepan, melt butter over low heat; stir in brown sugar and corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat. Spoon 1 tablespoonful into each muffin cup; top each with a pineapple slice and a cherry.

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugar until thickened and lemon-colored. Beat in the oil, sour cream and vanilla until smooth. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add to egg mixture; mix well.

Fill muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before inverting onto wire racks to cool completely. Garnish with whipped cream if desired.

Yield: 1 dozen jumbo cupcakes

Vintage Southern Tea Room Caramel Cake

from A Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman

Cake

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tbsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks

3 large eggs

1 egg yolk

2 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tsp butter extract, optional

1 1/3 cups warm buttermilk

Brown Sugar Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter

2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp corn syrup

Pinch salt

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Generously spray two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and place pans on a large, parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

In a mixing bowl, place flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and blend ingredients. Add butter and blend to break up butter into dry ingredients to get a grainy mixture. Blend in eggs, egg yolk, vanilla, butter extract, and buttermilk to make a batter, scraping sides and bottom of bowl occasionally to ensure batter is evenly blended.

Spoon batter into prepared pans. Bake until cakes spring back when gently pressed with fingertips, 30-35 minutes.

Cool in pans 15 minutes before unmolding onto a wire rack to cool.

For Brown Sugar Frosting, place butter, brown sugar, baking soda, corn syrup, salt, and vanilla in a 3-quart saucepan. Cook over low heat until mixture thickens and reaches soft ball stage (234* F). If you don’t have a thermometer, cook mixture 20-30 minutes until a bit of mixture seems to hold together like soft taffy when dropped on a cold plate. You can increase heat to make it cook faster, but slow and steady makes for better results.

Remove frosting from heat and let it cool and thicken. You can whip half the frosting with a mixer on medium speed 2 minutes and then on high 1 minute to lighten. Use this to frost two layers of cake together; it will spread like frosting. Pour remaining slightly warm frosting over top layer of cake and let it drip down*. This cake freezes well.

Serves 12-16

*I had an issue with the Brown Sugar Frosting turning out the correct consistency (The sugar didn’t dissolve completely and it was rather thick.). To improvise, I used about 1/3 of this frosting between the two cakes. I mixed up a buttercream frosting (recipe below) and also spread this between the two cakes (a layer on top of the Brown Sugar Frosting). Once the two cakes are assembled together, spread buttercream frosting over the top and sides. Finish off with your choice of decor – We used flowers.

Buttercream Frosting

3 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1-2 tbsp whipping cream

Cream butter and sugar together. Add vanilla and whipping cream until consistency is easy to spread on cake.

JEANE HERE: I’m sure you noticed some other confections on the table with Amy’s cakes. Those are cake pops made by my nephew’s wife, Lisa. She surprised us all by wanting to bring something fun and special for Mom’s birthday.

Here’s what she had to say when I wrote to ask for the recipe: “I cheated a little on the cake pops and used a Betty Crocker mix of yellow cake. I’m not as good as Amy. I used a cake pop machine (kind of like a waffle maker) and let them cool. Then I melted regular chocolate chips and dipped the cake ball into it first. Next I dipped the sticks into the chocolate and put the stick in the cake ball. For the white chocolate I melted white chocolate chips, added a little whole milk (just a splash) some powdered sugar (I think about 1/4 cup) and approximately 2 TB vanilla. Then I decorated them using “Icing Tubes” once we arrived on the island. Nothing complicated!”

Love to you all,

Jeane