Mini-Pineapple Upside Down Cakes--a birthday treat!

So this past Tuesday was my husbands "4043945th" birthday... (the actual number is in there--he would kill me if I announced his age to blog land), and I wanted to make something special for him. Anyhoo... the hubs is not a big cake fan but he does like pineapple upside down cake. Correction--he LOVES pineapple upside down cake. The problem? Gluten. So I set out on my quest to find a gluten free yellow cake recipe--which was not easy to find. What I ended up doing was going to the Betty Crocker Cookbook, using their yellow cake recipe but instead switched out the regular flour with some King Aurthur gluten free all purpose flour and added a teaspoon of xanthan gum. Now to add just a bit more confusion, I decided try out a pinterest idea and make "mini" cakes using my texas-sized muffin tins (the really big kind). Here's the lowdown...

Ingredients (cake)

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened 
• 1 1/2 cups sugar 
• 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 4 large eggs 
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour** (I used King Aurthur's gluten free all purpose mix) 
• 1cup milk  
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum** (not needed unless you make your cake gluten free) 

 Ingredients (toppings)

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted (if you use a regular 9x13 cake pan you will need 1 full stick)
• brown sugar to taste (I used about 1/3 cup total)
• sliced pineapple (fresh is best but canned in juice is good too)
• maraschino cherries
• walnuts (optional)

Directions

• Melt 1/2 stick butter. Pour in each muffin tin and add brown sugar till it is mixed and completely covers the bottom (you can not use to much of either so have at it!)
• Add pineapple rings to the bottom of pan, place a cherry (and walnuts if you want) in the center then set aside.                                       

• Beat butter, sugar, baking powder, and vanilla in a large bowl with mixer on high 3 minutes or until fluffy.
•  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each.
•  On low speed, beat in flour in 3 additions alternately with milk in 2 additions, just until blended, scraping sides of bowl as needed.
• Pour into muffin tins or 9x13 pan if you use a pan. (This recipe yielded 6 giant sized cupcake/mini-cakes)
• Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Take a knife and cut around the edges to help get a clean break.   

• Place a cookie sheet on top of muffin tin (or cake pan), turn over and remove cake(s) from the tin. If you let it sit too long the sugar will harden and it makes it really hard to remove the cake. 
•   Eat and enjoy.  

This turned out to be quite a hit in our house. Everyone loved them. I will definitely be baking these again!

Sesame Street Live

This year the hubs and I took Duncan to Sesame Street live for his 2nd birthday and it was quite an experience. We bought our tickets as soon as we could and ended up with GREAT seats on the floor, just to the right of the stage. Duncan was excited to go, after a bit of walking around and some Annie's bunny snacks, he settled in for the show. It was a bit overwhelming at first we could tell--he stuck to me like glue-- but by the time Elmo's World started he was dancing in the isles. As with any two year old, time is of the essence and we made it through about 3/4th of the show before Duncan just couldn't handle much more--I'm just happy he made it through intermission! We headed to lunch at a restaurant in town for hotdogs, bbq, and hamburgers and by the time the three of us got into the car to head home, Duncan was fast asleep for a 3 HOUR nap (it was heavenly!). All in all... a pretty good birthday celebration if I do say so myself. Now, just if they had a Thomas the Tank Engine traveling show... we'd be set for life!

Our seats, right up front near the stage. The characters came down and visited us a couple of times during the show.

Having our Annie's bunny snacks.
We pretty much can't go anywhere with out these :)

The start of the show.

Duncan was a bit overwhelmed by everything at first. That quickly changed once he saw Elmo and Cookie Monster.

Ernie came down off the stage into the crowd. Duncan really wanted to meet him.

A quick picture of daddy, taken by Duncan of course.

Dancing in the isle and having a great time.

Ernie captaining the S.S. Rubber Duckie.  This was daddy's favorite part.