HCB: Individual Pineapple Upside Down Cakes

Can I say this right off the bat (so we can all gasp and get it over with) I don’t like any cake, or pies or tartlets’ or anything that is made with fruit, or has fruit in it, never have and for the record; I have not acquired the taste over the years. In fact, let me put this out there: 

I.HATE.PIE. There I said it, it’s out there. You all have five second to give me the speech about this… Ready... Set...GO!

1,2,3,4,5…Ok, Done? Good, lets move on.

So after all that information I just gave, you can image my mind frame when I saw this cake came up to bat. I was like: “mmm, maybe I will skip it” Until the boyfriend and the little man (the Boyfriend son) asked me what cake was next. And the reaction was as follow:

Boyfriend:  “Babe, just because you are “scared’ of cooked fruit it does not mean we need to miss out on this, some of us like fruit”

And I had a come back, I did, until the little man jumped up and shouted “Ohhh!! Pineapple cake, please make it for my birthday cake!”

That 8-year old is sneaky, just like his father.

I was done for, plus we were invited to a dinner party and I figure I could get rid of all of it by offering to take it as the dessert.

The first thing I decided to do was use ramekins instead of the cute cake pan, because the cute cake pan was very expensive and I could not justify owning it just to bake pineapple cake in the future.  So I prepped 8 ramekins.

I stared with the caramel and I have done caramel before, in fact melting sugar had nothing on me!

Wrong!

Apparently, Turbinado sugar DOES have something on me because I must have looked away a mili-second too long, and before I knew it, the mixture had turn into a black color and not the deep amber that the book hinted at. Into the trash it went and a second round was started, with better results, except that I ended with not enough to cover all of the 8 ramekins... so 3 of those were very poorly coated.

I started on the cake and this went in much smoother. Everything came together as the book explained, except, once more I was a bit unsure of the batter distribution among the ramekins. This was even after I filled them up using the weight measurements cited in the book and not eyeballing it. But, I let it go into the hot oven they went.

Baking…baking…baking until the house smelled delicious and out they came. Tested them and right away I started to unmold them. Some came out pretty fast, others I had to sweet talked them out of the ceramic mold. Some of the caramel was melted, and others had some un-melted portions, very weird

And upon closer inspection, I realized that my instincts were right and the ration of cake was quite low. I mentally noted that I needed to go with 6-rameskins the next time and not 8, so I could have a pretty substantial cake distribution.

I finished them up with the suggestion of coating them with warm apricot glaze and I did skip the caramel sauce all together, figure it would be way to sweet (I knew the pineapples were supper sweet to begin with) and was to tired to try my luck again with the sugar and heat.

But it did not matter, the results were in:

Boyfriend: “YUM! In need of a repeat”

The little man: “Approved for my birthday cake next week!”

My mother: “They were delicious, needed more cake thought”

Host 1 from the dinner party: “I wish there was a bit more caramel on them, but they are great"

Host 2 from the dinner party: “No, they are perfect this way”

My take: I did taste them and thought they were good, love the cake texture and the fact that it was not sweet at all, which balance the sweetness of the pineapple and apricot glaze.

Would I make it again? Probably, I mean who can say no to an 8-year? 

Oh, wait I been corrected as I write this.. a NINE-YEAR-OLD!

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Quesillo

Ok folks this is so easy, there is no excuse to make one every weekend. It's rich, its creamy and oh, so good.

In Venezuela, as well as most of Latin America, everyone makes Flan and most of you probably have tasted some type of version of this creamy custard dessert. In Venezuela we make our version of Flan and call it: "Quesillo". The ingredients are your basic eggs, milk, vanilla, caramel and sweeten condense milk and a dash of run. It is bake either in a pressure cooker, or in the oven using the bain-marie (also known as a water bath) technique. Or the most original way will be in a cracker/cookie can, which I will talk about later.

The desert gets its name because, "Queso" mean "cheese" in Spanish and when its bake right and un-molded, it comes out looking like a "cheese". And while its super simple to make, oddly enough, most of the Venezuelan makes it only during a special celebration. Every birthday party has a cake and a Quesillo.

The cast of ingredients is composed of eggs, sweeten condense milk, whole milk, vanilla, lime peel and rum. But first we need to make the yummy caramel sauce - all it takes is sugar and a bit of water.

In a heavy sauce pan and mix the sugar and water, over high heat. The sugar will start to boil and then will start to slowly turn colors on you, first into a pale amber, and escalating into a medium, dark color; NOTE: Once you hit the pale stage DON'T WALK AWAY FROM IT, because it will jump into the medium and then dark very, very fast and if there is nothing more horrible, is BURNED sugar! So, make sure you are on top of it at all times. When you see it turn into a dark rich color, remove from heat and pour into the baking dish.

Tilt back and forth to cover the bottom and sides of dish. get it nice and coated. Again, be careful, the caramel at this stage is very hot and may burn you (Badly!). I usually cover my baking dish with a towel while I'm coating it.  Let the caremel in teh pot cool, so put it aside.

Side note: Lets talk about the baking dish for a bit. You can use any you like. But, my grandmother taught me to use a cracker or cookie can as seen below. Don't let the look fool you, this is the best thing to make the Quesillo in.

Yep, you read it right, a can! Which its the perfect baking vessel, it has a lid, which fits nice and tight and its the right height and it may sound totally off the wall, but the can gets cured with past baking and the caramel and custard just taste better. But ,you can use anything you like if you can not find, or feel comfortable using a can.

Back to making the actual quesillo custard.

Turn your oven to 400 Degrees.

The next step are simple enough, in a blender, pour the can of condensed milk - YUM! (lick those finger - go ahead you are allowed, I can wait) Then take the empty can and measure the whole milk and pour into a separate glass container (I use a measuring cup) with the strip of lemon peel and put in the microwave for about 2 minutes to warm up. Back to the blender I go and pour the warm milk, then the vanilla and run (if you are using, which I highly recommend you do) the blender at medium speed for about 1-2 minutes, while you are running the blender, you start adding the eggs one by one until fully incorporated.

Pour the custard mixture into the baking dish that you coated with caramel and place inside a larger pot. I usually like the specs of the lime peel, but if you don't you can strain the custard before it goes into the coated caramel baking dish.

You are ready to bake it! Take your baking dish and cover the top with aluminum foil, nice and tight. Then place into a bigger heavy dish/pan. You are ready for the water bath - Pour in enough hot water into larger pot to reach halfway up the sides of the baking dish. TIP: if you squeeze the previous peeled lime into the water, the pot you are using will not turn black during the baking process.

Slowly place into the middle rack of your hot oven and bake about 55 minutes, covered. Then uncovered and bake another 20 minutes. The custard is ready when you touch it and it feels firm but a bit wiggling in the middle. Take out of the oven - again, be very careful, since the water inside the large pot it's very hot! Set aside to cool off, about 30 minutes or so. Once is cooled, place in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours before serving. I recommen you leave it overnight.

When ready to serve and un-mold, dip the flan in a saucepan of hot water, or in the sink full of hot water from the tap for a few seconds. It should lose up, but sometimes, you need to run a knife around the edge to help it a bit. Invert the quesillo onto a plate with lip in order to save all that yummy caramel!

Served and enjoy the praises

Ingredient

(makes a medium size Quesillo) if you need to make a bigger one, double the ingredients

Caramel Sauce:
6 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of water

Custard
1 (14-ounce) can of Condensed Milk
1 (14-ounce) can of whole milk (use empty condensed milk can for measure)
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 lime peel or 1/4 teaspoon of grated
1 tablespoons of dark rum (could omit if desired, but I highly recommend not do do so)
6 eggs (4 whole eggs, 2 yolks)

Steps: See above

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