Rainbow Cake

Yellow cake batter+food dye= rainbow cake

You divide the batter into seven (six?) parts and dye each bit a different color. Then, you pour the batter, one color at a time, rainbow order, into the middle of the pan. Bake it and you get:

AWESOME.

Gorgeous, and it doesn't taste half bad either ;). Little kids really love it, and it's very fun to make.

Rainbow crumbs.

Poppyseed Cake with a Creme Fraiche and Fresh Berry Filling for the Fourth!

I made this delicious creation for the Fourth of July yesterday! It is a *deep breath* poppyseed cake with a creme fraiche and fresh berry filling *phew.* It came out of the Passion for Desserts cookbook that I've mentioned before. 

I'd never made anything with: a) creme fraiche or b) poppyseeds before so this was a bit of an adventure cake. I'd never even tried creme fraiche before! It was creamy and nutty. And not in the crazy sense. The filling was creme fraiche, heavy whipping cream, and sugar, all whipped together. The creme fraiche made the filling quite tangy, but the sugar added a hint of sweetness. The blueberries were cooked with sugar until they popped, making a tasty sauce! Fresh strawberries were thrown in there to complete the patriotic homage.

The cake was just a typical cake, made with buttermilk, flour, eggs, sugar, etc. But the poppyseeds made it exciting! I loved dumping them into the cake batter and watching them swirl around, looking a little like a belt of stars in the sky of my cake batter.

The cake was well received, by everyone at our picnic at the park. I left the cake out of the picnic basket, and it was admired by most everyone walking by. I even gave out a piece to an elderly lady who said she liked the way it looked. This cake is a great way to enjoy your fresh summer berries at their best.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

This is a tried and true recipe out of The Joy of Cooking. The results were great. Sweet pineapple and a coffee cake-like cake paired together were fantastic. Did you know that pineapple upside-down cake was created to market canned pineapple?

This was a test run for a birthday cake request I got. Since I had never made pineapple upside-down cake before, I figured it would be better to try it once before I made for real, lest I muck it up. I really liked the fact that the cake was like a coffee-cake. The caramelized brown sugar on top really made the pineapple lose its acidity, and bring out its true sweetness. Even my sister who says that "pineapple makes my tongue acid-y" enjoyed it. It's a great recipe and I'm making it again soon.