Pineapple Tarts

My friend requested that I make some pineapple tarts for her. I hesitated for a while... I was not sure I could make tasty pineapple tarts. The last time I bake these was about more than half a year ago. I baked the tarts with commercially purchased pineapple jam, and it was fine. The pastry was pretty alright. Then I attempted the very next day with some home-made pineapple jam, and it was not really edible. I followed a recipe that was quite different from the traditional way of making the jam, and the fillings turned out to be quite awful. This time round, I did more research, and with the right ingredients along with past experiences.... I managed to come up with this batch of pineapple tarts. I did not bake the pastry for too long, thus they are quite close to the "melt-in-the-mouth" sort of texture. My pineapple jam was not too wet, nor was it too dry this time. But I think I could have made it sweeter. As for the pastry, maybe I should try to bake them a little longer next time because I feel that even though the pastry was soft, there was something missing in them...maybe the sweet smell of butter?! Besides these open-styled ones, I have also made a batch of close-styled ones for my friend.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

The last time I bake a Pineapple Upside Down Cake was about twenty years back when I was in secondary school. We had to bake this cake during our Home Economics class. I remembered teaming up with one of my classmates and we made a small Pineapple Upside Down cake of about 6 inches in diameter. It was one of the most interesting lessons then. All the cakes in our class turned out great. Recently I have been thinking about revisiting this recipe. I did not keep the original recipe from my old text book, but I found an equally good one from one of my cookbooks. So, after twenty years... today I tried making this very classic, very old school Pineapple Upside Down cake again! I had some hiccups along the way. The recipe called for a 10" cake pan, but I find that to be a little too big for the amount of batter I had. I think I would bake it using a 9" cake pan the next time round. My caramel toppings was not too nicely done too... I should reheat the syrup before putting in the pineapple rings so that the toppings would spread out more evenly on the cake tin. I baked this cake in the 350 F oven for about 50 mins and took a slice while it was still warm. The cake was quite yummy, and suddenly I was overwhelmed with a nostalgia for my schooling days!!