Swedish Pineapple Cake will make you forget your troubles

Swedish Pineapple Cake and Banana-Pineapple Cake: Something sweet, something fruity, the baking aromas of flour, sugar, vanilla, pineapple and bananas permeating throughout the kitchen, reminds us of the good things in life.

Swedish Pineapple Cake:

This recipe is making the kitchen circuit these days. No one seems to know its origins. I was given the recipe from Rhonda at a block party who got it from Sandra who probably got it at a church potluck. Now it’s your turn to pass it along.

The key to this recipe: mix the ingredients in order and without a mixer.

Swedish Pineapple Cake, Rhonda and Sandra

No eggs, no butter and no oil and so easy to make.

Cake:

• Mix 2 cups sugar with 1 (20 oz.) can of crushed pineapple.
• Stir in 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Stir in 2 cups flour
• Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Stir in 1 cup chopped pecans
• Pour into an ungreased and unfloured 13 x 9 inch baking dish
• Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
• Frost when cool.

Frosting:

• 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
• ¾ cup sugar (not powdered sugar)
• 1 stick butter, softened
• ½ cup pecans
• Cream the sugar and cream cheese. Add butter until smooth and add nuts.
• Frost

Recycling tips from Household Hints, 1948: Old but laundered socks, pulled over shoes not in use or when they are packed for travel, will keep them like new and separated from other packed items. A retired curtain rod makes a handy shoe rack. Just tack it on the closed door, and hang the shoes by their heels. A pot lid without a knob seems doomed to discard until you apply this clever little life-saver: push a sharp, pointed screw up through the hole and twist a cork onto it. The cork is heat-proof. If your aluminum ware has warped, place a wooden block on bulge and hammer back to shape.

Banana-Pineapple Cake, Sharing Our Best, Shekinah Church, Blountville, TN

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups mashed bananas
• 1 cup oil
• 1 (8 ½ oz.) can crushed pineapple
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

In a mixing bowl, thoroughly sift together flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Combine slightly beaten eggs, bananas, oil, undrained pineapple and vanilla. Add all at once to dry ingredients, stirring until well moistened. Pour batter into a greased and floured tube pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for 60-70 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool in pan 15 minutes; remove and cool on rack. Sprinkle powdered sugar or drizzle with a powdered sugar glaze, if desired.

For recipes like this one, I try and stay away from tube and Bundt cake baking pans and defiantly the traditional banana bread loaf pans (the middle is usually underdone while the bread on the edges comes out too dry). I like the individual molds and they work well for snacks and a quick dessert or sweet. Less baking time too, about 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Best of Helpful Kitchen Hints, 1980: Run overripe bananas through a sieve or mash them, add a little lemon juice and freeze. Perfect for later use in cakes and breads.