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I baked my first cake from scratch last Thursday… A Pineapple upside down cake using Dick DeBartolo’s recipe. It turned out on the chewy side. I think I over-stirred it, or perhaps I didn’t get it in the oven quick enough after putting the baking powder in. I love the caramelized sugar on the bottom of it. An using strawberry jam instead of the candied cherries tastes a lot better to me.

Cooking cakes from scratch is quite a bit simpler than I thought it would be. Similar to cooking my favorite brownie recipe from scratch. It’s just a matter of getting everything together in the correct order . The tricky part of this was the room temperature butter. I’ve only had to deal with that when making pie crusts, and that was several years ago. I ended up mashing the butter up with a fork then mixing it into the eggs…. After all it wasn’t the time to be googleing the correct way to combine it in.

I’ve made pineapple upsidedown cakes before so the topping, or bottom, wasn’t a big deal. The jam was actually quicker than fishing cherries out of the jar, and added plus. Then I scooped the cake batter on top, like Dick recommended. Even though the pineapple rings where packed in tight, They still tried to move around a bit.

It was fun! I think I may try a chocolate cake from scratch next. I’m trying to move away from cake mix because the kind that I used to use was full of Hydrogenated oils.  Not good for you, no matter how good it tastes.  It didn’t take me any longer to make the cake from scratch, than it does to make one from a mix. Which saving time was the whole point in using the mix,  for me, in the first place.

On to more cooking experiments in the future… Right after we finish this cake though

I was really in a duck mood earlier this month. This is the adopted daughter of Catlin and Scrooge. And Yes she looks like Drake Mallard from DWD… She ended up being his twin.

Yea, not very original but hey, she is a fan character after all.   It was fun to play with her design, though I think her hair would really be better a bit longer next time. She’s about 20 years old here, in the suit she wears to business meetings.  The coat is green, not sure if she’ll have purple, or orange cuffs and collar. The skirt is printed with the clan McDuck’s Tartan.  Not a true kilt, because wool is too hot for DuckBurg’s summers. Catlin had several hundred yards of a knit printed up with the tartan on it.

I haven’t come up with a first name for her yet… I was thinking of sticking with a C name.  Catlin following Scrooges idea of using the $ as a logo uses ¢ as hers when she has some business she’s playing with.

Then again Scrooge doesn’t really use the $ on anything accept his bin in the comics. Everything is just McDuck (insert type of business here)…. Ah well, something to ponder whenever I get back around to it.

Title: Stage Invader (Wishbone Mysteries)
Author: Vivian Sathre
Genre: Mystery
Source: Bookmooch
Rating: 5 out of 5

I’ve yet to be disappointed by any of the wishbone series of books. This one is my favorite so far. It start’s out with them working on a student run play, when accidents begin happening. While the overall plot is fairly predictable, the saboteur wasn’t. It makes for a quick and fun read.

Title: The Good Dog
Author: AVI
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy.
Source: Purchased at a Charity Shop
Rating: 4 out of 5

What struck me the most is that it doesn’t feel like a fantasy book. It feels exactly like something that could happen in real life, up until almost the end.

Definitely not your usual dog book. It’s a fun, quick, easy read, and all without a depressing ending. The personalities seem to fit the breeds that they’re written for, without getting clique. This is definitely going on my recommend list of dog stories.