Flipped Out Pumpkin Cherry Cake

Pumpkin Cherry Upside Down Cake

When it comes to desserts, for me, there are many choices that do not tantalize.  I can walk away from ANYTHING vanilla, pecan pie, and most ice cream without a backward glance.  But there are four flavors that I cannot resist listed here in order of temptation:  dark chocolate, cherry, cinnamon and pumpkin.  This concoction hits three of the big four combining cherries, cinnamon and pumpkin in a beautiful upside down cake.  I flipped when I found this recipe, which is like having your pumpkin cake and eating cherry pie, too!  

Pumpkin Cherry Upside Down Cake

adapted from a recipe on BHG.com
2 10 oz. jars cherry preserves
1 cup Craisins
1/3 cup butter
1/2 t cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup butter softened
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 t vanilla
1 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9x13 baking pan with foil.  Grease foil; set aside.  In a saucepan, combine cherry preserves, Craisins, cinnamon and butter.  Heat and stir until boiling; remove from heat.  Pour 3/4 of the cherry mixture into prepared baking pan and spread evenly.  Set aside.









In a bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and spice.  In a mixer, combine butter and shortening.  Add sugar; cream.  Add eggs and vanilla until mixed.  Beat in pumpkin.  Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to the pumpkin mixture.  Beat after each addition until just mixed.  Carefully spoon pumpkin batter and smooth atop cherry preserves in baking pan.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack fro 5 minutes.  Turn onto a large patter.  Serve warm!  Use reserved topping if needed to cover entire cake.

Fall Colors and Seasonal Tastes for Thanksgiving

Fruitful Life

Ingredients for Paleta de Frutero 

Throughout my adult life, I have strived to be fruitful.  In my chosen vocation as an educator, I was certain not to gain monetary reward, but in forging relationships and caring for my student's intellectual and emotional well-being, I gained infinite compensation.  A teacher's calling is to be purposeful, fruitful in her own life, but true joy comes in observing the fruit produced in the lives of her students.  Through the World Wide Web, I have been fortunate to reconnect with 90 students I taught 27 years ago.  I knew them as adorable fifth graders, in the last year of true childhood.  It has been a beautiful experience to spend time with "my children" who are now adults.  They invite me into their lives, expand my world and I'm privileged to observe the fruitfulness they have gained with maturity.

As I prepared the ingredients for the fruit bowl paletas, thoughts of my "formers" passed through my mind:  the one who has made me a family member, the one who has worked with hurting people all over the world, the one whose life has been redeemed despite regrettable choices in earlier years, the one who is a loving and patient mother, the one who is the most thoughtful and solicitous person I've ever known, the one who rescues people in danger, the ones who have visited my home or invited me into theirs, called, sent messages, gifts and flowers, and the one who is now, to my total delight, developing young hearts and minds as a fifth grade teacher!

If my life were finished today, I would have experienced fruitfulness nurtured, grown and multiplied many times over.  These fruit bowl paletas are a delectable dessert, but thoughts of the fruit of my formers is sweeter still.

Pack Fruit Snugly in Molds

Fruit Bowl Paletas Recipe

adapted from Everyday Food Magazine

3/4 cup hulled strawberries, halved

2 kiwis, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

1/2 cup blueberries

1/4 cup Rainier cherries

1 mango, peeled and sliced

2 cups 100% white grape juice

1 T lemon juice

Arrange some of each fruit in popsicle molds, fitting pieces tightly.  Mix lemon juice with white grape juice.  Pour enough juice to cover fruit, freeze 45 minutes, insert sticks, freeze 4-6 hours more.  Any preferred fruit can be substituted in this recipe.

Fresa, Kiwi, Cerezas, Arándanos, Mango con Jugo de Uva Blanca

Paleta de Frutero