Pineapple Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

If you are the type who thinks using a boxed cake mix is akin to substituting a McRib for prime rib, you may wish to avert your eyes lest I offend.  I, however, have no compunction about using a boxed mix, usually with a little 'boost' of some sort.  It's a useful launching pad.  So I found this pineapple mix at the market the other day and thought it interesting enough to try.  And seeing that tomorrow's my birthday I had to make a cake ("had to"... yeah, sure!) so I thought it would be a good opportunity to test drive this. 

Pineapple Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake:
1 boxed Pillsbury pineapple cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup pineapple juice
3/4 cup applesauce
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained super-duper well

Frosting:
8-ounce package cream cheese (I use fat-free)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
4 cups confectioner's sugar
1-2 tablespoons heavy cream or half-and-half
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon coconut flavouring/extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sweetened shredded coconut, divided

Make cake according to package directions, substituting pineapple juice for the water and applesauce for the oil.  Mix in crushed pineapple at the end.

For the frosting, beat the cream cheese and butter in a mixer bowl until light and fluffy.  Gradually add the confectioner's sugar, one cup at a time, alternating with heavy cream.  Beat in the salt, coconut flavoring, and vanilla extract.  Continue beating until mixture is smooth and spreadable. Add additional sugar if necessary to thicken the frosting, or more cream to thin.  Stir in 1 cup coconut.  If desired, toast the other 1 cup coconut to sprinkled evenly over frosted cake.

So there it is, my birthday cake!  :-)

Err, yes, I'm not the best at cutting clean slices...

 ...but it was still delicious!

Strawberry + Cobbler.... errr... Strawbbler?

Well, this took care of about 1/4 of the strawberries I bought today... right, so who's up for strawberry meatloaf then?

Strawberry Cobbler

4 cups sliced strawberries

½ cup butter (1 stick)

1 ¾ cups sugar

2 cups flour

1 ½ tablespoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 ¼ cups milk

Heat oven to 325F.  Place butter in a 13×9 baking dish and melt in the oven as it preheats.

Mix 1 cup sugar with ½ cup flour. Add strawberries and toss. Allow the berries to sit so the sugar dissolves.

In a separate bowl, mix remaining 1 ½ cups flour and ¾ cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add milk and whisk until smooth. Remove dish with melted butter from oven. Pour batter over melted butter. Do not stir.  Spoon strawberries on top of batter. Again, do not stir.

It's really not very impressive at this point, I admit.  But just you wait!

Bake for one hour until cobbler is golden brown and bubbly. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or custard.

Adapted slightly from here.