A Pineapple in China

Duck Head. Yes, that's a bill, feet are below

After only living in Connecticut for three weeks, I managed to have a pretty packed weekend. Some of the highlights include seeing Act of Valor Friday night, which I would definitely recommend people see. While the acting isn't "Oscar" worthy (I mean c'mon, the guys are real soldiers), you definitely leave feeling pretty good about being an American. It also helped that the entire audience applauded after the movie ended.

My best friend Lindsay came up for the weekend on Saturday and we had a really good time doing girly things: lunch out, manicures, etc. We spent the evening out with some of the other folks I've met along the way. We spent the majority of our time at Molly Darcy's. Not a bad place, but I certainly realized, "I'm not in Philly anymore!" On Sunday we had lunch at a coworker's house. He and his wife prepared traditional Chinese food. It was eerily reminiscent of my trip two years ago. I loved the Beijing noodles, but politely passed on the duck head, and chicken and duck feet.

My co-worker, who is from China, loves pineapple, but he had never had pineapple upside down cake. Although this is my father's favorite cake and my mother has always made it for him, every year, I never did it myself. So, here is a little photo story of my first-ever, and yes successful, pineapple upside down cake:

I don't usually use boxed mix, but I like that Duncan Hines has a specific "pineapple" mix for this sort of cake. In addition, I try to find ways to make the mix healthier. For instance, I substitute apple sauce for vegetable oil and I use egg whites or egg beaters in replace of real eggs.

I had to make the glaze first - Again, here I substituted Smart Balance butter, for real butter or margarine. I also used the Splenda Brown Sugar mix - Be careful. The recipe calls for a cup of brown sugar, and I almost made the mistake of assuming Splenda Brown Sugar measures cup for cup like brown sugar - it does not!

 

 Did my best to make a pretty design...I was nervous about the Splenda Brown Sugar at this point because the glaze was lighter than I remember it being when my mother uses regular brown sugar - but all was well.

It took about an hour to bake and smelled really delicious. A this point I was nervous, because you have to flip the cake right after you take it out of the oven . . . 

 Success! Flipping of the cake worked! AND the cake was really quite good, if I may say so myself. The entire lunch party really enjoyed it and the best part was, it was less guilt-free than usual!

And now, at 25 years old, I can say I have baked a successful pineapple upside down cake! Enjoy.