Irish Pineapple Upside Down Cake

So, I got busy and put this blog aside for a few years. Today I decided to resurrect it and saw a comment Olivia, my son James’ girlfriend, had left years ago, asking for a recipe for pineapple-upside-down-cake for his birthday. I don't think I ever saw it, or maybe I just forgot about it. Since then, a lot has happened: I got married. I bought a house. My parents moved in with us. James and Olivia got married! 

Last year James asked me to make this cake for his birthday. I adapted it from a recipe I found on an Irish blog, which called for making it in individual ramekins. Really, I think the only thing Irish about this cake is the whisky and Kerrygold butter, but I am a fan of both, so I thought I would give it a try. 

James got me some whisky cherries for my birthday, so I used them. My dad had some Powers Irish whisky, so I used that too, but it's optional. The butter still makes it Irish. Anyway, I made a double recipe in a big sheet pan and everyone enjoyed eating it and washing it down with some sweet old-fashioned cocktails that James made for us. Yeah, we had a good time- always do. 

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons unsalted Irish butter (it has to be Irish butter) 

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 Tablespoons Celtic Crossings liqueur or Irish whisky 

1 can of sliced pineapple

whisky cherries (or maraschino cherries soaked in whisky, or not..) 

1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted Irish butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla 

3/4 cup buttermilk

Directions: Preheat the oven 350º F. Butter 8" square or round baking pan. Toast the coconut in a small frying pan over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it begins to lightly brown. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. Combine butter, sugar, and booze in the pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar has melted and the mixture is smooth.  Pour into the baking pan and arrange pineapple slices over the syrup, placing a cherry in the center of each one. Set aside. Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla.   Add half the flour mixture and half the buttermilk until well combined, then beat in remaining flour and buttermilk until smooth.  Stir in the coconut.  Spoon the batter onto the pineapples and smooth out evenly in the pan.  Bake for about 30 minutes until the top is golden brown, springy to the touch and the edges are pulling away slightly from the sides of the pan.  Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes.  Run a knife around the sides  and invert onto cake plate.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  Serves 8 - 10

Soft Molasses Cookies

I am a fan of molasses cookies, just like my father. This is a recipe for soft molasses cookies that Grandma Danehy used to make. I made them for a family reunion and Anne commented that they were too small, I guess Grandma Danehy used to make them big. My mother always complains that I make cookies too big - guess I got it from my Dad's side.

2 cups molasses (NOT blackstrap)
13 T crisco
4 1/2 cup flour
3 t baking soda
1 t dried ginger
1 t salt
10 T warm water

Cream the crisco and molasses
Mix the dry ingredients and add them to the crisco and molasses
Mix in the water
Roll into balls, place on ungreased cookie sheet (they will spread quite a bit)
bake at 325 for 15 min

Thanks for putting this blog together Katie!

Teri

Rolled Cookies

When we sold the house on Wood Street there was icing on the ceiling above the dining room table that had lived there for at least a decade.  How it got there is clear; it was flung from the end of a butter knife during a cookie decorating party.  Who flung the icing we may never know, but I'm pretty sure it was my brother.

My mother has been making these cookies every year for as long as I can remember, and inviting people to come and decorate them in parties big and small.  When we were little there were neighborhood friends.  As we grew older there were times we were gone but the neighborhood friends still came.  My parents invited their friends.  In our young adulthood we invited new friends from far and wide.  Then we had kids.  Friends, new and old, brought their kids and cookie decorating parties got pretty wild, although I can't say anymore icing was flung. 

The snow today was very auspicious, as it afforded me an opportunity to stay home and get some work done as well as make some Valentine's Day cookies for the kids in my class.  I got out the old family recipe binder that my mother made me twenty years ago and ventured out to buy the ingredents.  I remembered her telling me that there was a problem with the recipe.  I gave her a call.  The recipe calls for 1 pkg of free flowing brown sugar.  It turns out that in the old days, a package was a pound.  Now, it's 14 oz.  We discussed what difference it would make in the recipe and came to the conclusion that since we slather the cookies in sugery icing a bit less sugar wouldn't matter.

I love hearing the sound of my mother's voice and I am always happy to have an excuse to call her up.  These cookies are most definitely an icon of the powerful love that flows through our family, sweet and dependable and occasionally excessive.  Bake them at Christmas or Valentine's Day or some other special occasion- enjoy.

1pkg free-pouring brown sugar
1t salt
1/2 lb margarine
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
3 1/2 c flour
1t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t cinnamon

Mix sugar, salt and butter.  Beat in eggs and extract until light and fluffy.  Blend dry ingredients in gradually. Chill well.  Roll 1/8 in thick.  Cut and place on ungreased sheet.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 min.