ADORABLE PINEAPPLE CAKELETS

WEEK SIXTEEN: RECIPES THAT BRING OUT THE HOMEBODY IN YOU AND MAKE YOU GLAD THAT YOU LOVE TO EAT.

I'm always looking for something different that I can do with a plain old cake and here is something you just don't see every day. I know the first thing you will want to ask is "Does it have to to be made with pineapple?" to which I will say, "Not at all!" You can use any kind of cake that you want and put in or take out just about anything. I chose pineapple because I happen to LIKE pineapple and because I also happened to have some sitting around waiting to be used for something. If you want to make little chocolate cakelets or spice cakaelets or whatever, it's totally up to you. I'll admit that using the pineapple probably made it a little more difficult because the cakes were heavy and more moist than just ordinary cake would have been which made frosting them a little bit hard, but they more than made up for it in taste! So, here is what you do:

1. Start with an ordinary cake mix which, in this case, was a white cake. Make it according to the package directions in a 9" X 13" baking pan or Pyrex casserole dish except, in this recipe, rather than add the required water you add 1 large can of crushed pineapple along with the oil and eggs.


2. Bake the cake and allow it to cool. This takes about 1 hour or you can hurry it up by putting it in the freezer.

3. After it has cooled completely, take some small thin plastic cups that measure 3" across the top and use them like cookie cutters to cut out 12 round circles.

4. This is how it looks.

5. After you have the little cakelets all cut out, place them on a flat cookie sheet or pan, cover them with plastic wrap and foil and put them in the freezer. This makes the frosting process a whole lot easier. If you happen to be making these with children, which I recommend because they would love to be involved in cutting out the little cakelets, it will be hard for them to wait for the cakelets to come out of the freezer. You might want to do the cutting out at night and then do the frosting the next day which will give the little ones something exciting to look forward to when they go to bed that night.

6. Now, make some basic buttercream frosting. Here is the recipe I like to use:

1 lb. powdered sugar (4 C.) This is one box or 1/2 of a 2 lb. bag.

1/4 C. butter (1/2 cube)

1/4 C. heavy cream

1 tsp. vanilla

Melt the butter in the microwave.

Beat the heavy cream, melted butter and vanilla into the powdered sugar until it is smooth and spreads easily. You may need to add a little more cream to give it the consistency that you want. It always pays to start with less liquid and then add more than start with too much and have the frosting too runny with no more powdered sugar to thicken it up with.

7. Now you can add whatever decorations you want to the cakelets. I used colored candy sprinkles, chocoalte sprinkles, sliced almonds and coconut. You put these on the sides of the cakelets after you have frosted both top and sides with the buttercream frosting. There you have it! This makes 12 little cakelets. Enjoy