Green Tea Cake

I had been craving green tea cake for a few days so I came up with a simple recipe and got this:

The cake taste buttery with a hint of green tea and I love the fact that it is not too sweet. I sprinkled some powdered sugar on top to add some sweetness but this is optional.

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 8x8 square pan with parchment paper.

2. Mix 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 tablespoon green tea powder and 1 teaspoon baking powder in a small bowl.

3. Cream 1 cup butter and 1 cup sugar in a big bowl.

4. Add in dry ingredients and blend.

5. Add 4 eggs, one at a time.

6. Bake 35 minutes.

Pineapple Muffins

I had some leftover canned pineapples from yesterday so I made some pineapple muffins. The recipe was adapted from:

http://bakingbites.com/2010/05/pineapple-muffins/

Pineapple Muffins
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 cup buttermilk
6 tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg
2 tsp orange zest
1 cup chopped pineapple
coarse sugar, for topping

The muffins came out perfect: soft, fluffy, just the right amount of sweetness and refreshing.

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line muffin tin with 12 muffin liners.
2. Mix 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 cup sugar in a big bowl.
3. Add in 1 cup buttermilk, 6 tablespoon melted butter and 1 egg. Blend well.
4. Add in 1 cup of chopped pineapple. Mix well.
5. Distribute batter into 12 equal muffins.
6. Sprinkle each muffin with some raw cane sugar on top (approximately 1 teaspoon per muffin).
7. Bake 18 minutes.

I did not take any pictures but I assure you this is a good recipe.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

I was inspired to try baking this cake for my mom after watching last Sunday's episode of Desperate Housewives. The episode was not about baking a pineapple upside-down cake for mom, I just saw that the cake looked pretty and I had never tried it before.

The recipe I picked was from:

Betty Crocker Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Ingredients

1/4

cup butter or margarine 

2/3

cup packed brown sugar

9

slices pineapple in juice (from 14-oz can), drained

9

maraschino cherries without stems, if desired 

1 1/3

cups Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour

1

cup granulated sugar 

1/3

cup shortening

1 1/2

teaspoons baking powder

1/2

teaspoon salt

3/4

cup milk 

1

egg 

As usual, I do not like my cake too sweet so I cut down the brown sugar in half. I used light brown sugar. I also melt the butter and light brown sugar together on the stove instead of melting the butter in the oven then sprinkling the brown sugar over the butter, as stated on the recipe. I used electric mixer to cream shortening and sugar before adding eggs, then added milk and dry ingredients alternately, instead of just blending everything for 3.5 minutes as stated on the recipe. I used a springform pan instead of cake pan because I do not have any cake pan.

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare a 9-inch round or square pan.
2. Measure 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour, 1 1/2 baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt into a bowl. Briefly mix with whisk or fork.
3. Rinse, drain and pat dry 7 slices of canned pineapples and 7 maraschino cherries (I do not like the syrup that the pineapple and cherries were drenched in) (Use 7 for round pan, 9 for square pan).
4. Melt 1/4 cup butter and 1/3 cup light brown sugar on a pan (Do not place plan directly on the fire. This will take only a short moment. Beware to not burn the sugar). Pour your melted butter and brown sugar into pan.
5. Arrange pineapple slices in pan, followed by cherries in the center of each pineapple slice.
6. Cream 1/3 cup vegetable shortening.
7. Add 1 cup granulated sugar into shortening. Continue creaming.
8. Add 1 egg. Beat well.
9. Pour 1/3 of dry ingredients into batter (refer step 2). Beat until dry ingredients are incorporated.
10. Pour 1/4 cup milk into batter. Beat until incorporated.
11. Repeat steps 9 and 10 twice.
12. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.
13. Bake for 50 minutes.
14. Slightly run knife over sides of cake pan to loosen the cake.
15. Invert onto a cooling rack, let cake pan on for few minutes so the brown sugar mixture can seep into the cake.

Note: Good recipe (It is good instead of excellent because we cannot mix everything with the electric mixer at the same time or cake will come out 'overbeaten', in which it is soft and breaks very easily).