Chocolate Castles as wel

This morning we happened to look out front to see a neighbor we had not seen before. Especially in this heat when everyone is staying indoors, I got excited to see a lady sitting outside on her porch reading what looked like her Bible. I told Randy that I had to go take her a cake and introduce myself! Immediately I got up to see what I had in the pantry! And there it was…a Duncan Hines Pineapple Cake Mix. Not having sliced pineapple or maraschino cherries, I remembered what Brenda Gantt is always saying “use what you have”! So I did. I got the can of crushed pineapple out and the candied cherries that I still had from making a different cake and began to tweak it to make individual cakes. This recipe made 5. It is always so great to be able to use the paper baking pans so it makes it easy to give away and look pretty all at the same time. Adapting the recipe to allow it to use what I had this is what I did:

1 box of Duncan Hines Pineapple cake mix

4 eggs at room temperature

1 cup of water (I drained the 20 Oz can of crushed pineapple and was able to get a cup of liquid so I used that in place of water)

1/3 cup oil

1 small package of French vanilla instant pudding

1 stick butter, melted

20 oz can of crushed pineapple

1 cup light brown sugar

15 candied cherries, cut in half

Combine cake mix. 4 eggs, oil, dry pudding mix and water (or juice) Beat with mixer 2 min and no lumps remain!

Melt the 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick). Pour about 2-3 tablespoons in bottom of each baking pan. Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of brown sugar over butter. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of crushed pineapple over the sugar and place about 4-6 cherry half’s over that. Using an ice cream scoop (Pioneer Woman makes a great one for $9.00). Place about 2 scoops of batter over the pineapple mixture and bake about 15-17 min or until cake tests done! Cool and top with pineapple glaze if desired.

Glaze:

Using remainder of pineapple and its juice, add any left over melted butter you had from the 1/2 melted. I added 2 cups of powdered sugar and stirring until powdered sugar is dissolved. When cake is cooled about 30 min, pour some of the glaze over the top!

Pineapple Glaze