Last Cake, Next Cake

We have quite a bit of participation this week, which always makes me happy. Sorry, I'm having a bit of a writer's block moment and can't think of anything to write in the intro.

Anyway, here are the roundups!

Jane was not really excited about upside down cakes but she was glad she made it anyway. I like Jane's rant about the difficulty of finding full fat yogurt. It reminds me of my own frustration, :). "The cake called for full fat yogurt and I had no idea how difficult it is to find full fat yogurt. Every type of yogurt in the grocery store is non fat or fat free or low fat." The cake itself was delicious but received mixed reviews. "One of my friends really didn't like it but some of my other friends said that they really did."

Melissa baked this cake in her newly purchased Pineapple Pan from Nordic Ware. Her family are big fans of upside down and fruity cakes, so she guaranteed the new pan will get a lot of use. Using fresh pineapples and coring it herself (unlike some of us who used canned or already-cored pineapple), Melissa's only complaints is that the cake part was too small. Even so, the cake was a big hit. "The tangy, lime caramel sauce cooked nicely into the fresh pineapple and cherry and created crunchy toffee like bits on the edges."

Hanaa's been absent for a while and now she's back with a catch-up cake: Apple Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake. She used a combination of Honey Crisp and Mccintosh apples from her own apple tree. The cake was a hit. "I loved the different flavors and textures that this cake offers. The cake is buttery, tender and moist. The filling has a great apple and cinnamon flavor and the topping is nutty and crunchy which was a wonderful contrast."

Our FEATURED BAKER this week is Lola, who creatively used papaya for this cake because her honey does not like pineapple. She baked this cake in a 6 inch cake pan and made the caramel with lime juice instead of pineapple juice. This cake also marked the launching of her new Breville counter top oven. More creativity, as she sprinkled pomegranates on top of the cake, adding "a nice crunch. The cake is an easy recipe and could be used for any number of fruit on the bottom (really the top) cakes.  Not my best endeavor, but tasty."
A shout-out to Lois for posting the link to her Pineapple Cake. She wasn't feeling well so she missed out on baking this weekend.

Next week is FREE CHOICE and the week after is the Angel Food Cake. This is the 1st cake in the sponge cake chapter and is a base recipe. It gives you the formula using 1 egg white. If you are going to use a full size angel food pan, then you need to multiple it by 16 (16 egg whites). The recipe has the optional flavoring of grated unsweetened chocolate (which would make it similar to the Chocolate Tweed Angel Food Cake) but you can really use any flavoring you want. Lemon, orange, peppermint, coconut, to name a few. The possibilities are endless. I'm looking forward to see what everyone come up with.