I like to tweak recipes whenever I cook.. I don't follow exact directions/measurements very well at all. Maybe it has something to do with my disdain for authority, maybe it has something to do with enjoying creative freedom in cooking.
The lead up story to this post is a lunchtime dining experience I had recently when at a placed called Julia's Solstice Cafe with my friend Brenda and her perfectly adorable 14 month old. I'm going to throw out a disclaimer here; I do not recommend going there unless you've got a lot of time to kill. I really wanted to like this place so much more than I ended up liking it. The menu is interesting and there is a variety of fresh-ish (who are we kidding it's Central Alaska in the winter), vegetarian dishes and a little meat lover food which is hard to find in Fairbanks, AK and the food is good. Unfortunately the service is the worst I've come across. It was like shopping in one of those boutiques where the sales associates size you up and decides that you don't measure up to their standards of cool/money and therefore ignore you. It was like that except the waitstaff consisted of one empty headed hipster girl who when I asked what options they had for the special of build your own sandwiches (how is that special) she replied "lettuce, tomato and onion." (also how is that special) I had to ask twice if she was sure that was all there was for sandwich stuffings. Then my friend clarified for me and said "do you have meat or cheese?" Oh we all had a good laugh at that moment (by the way I asked because for some reason these items are not listed anywhere on the special menu). Unfortunately we were both getting annoyed with the service by that point as it had taken her 15 min to break away from her social gab-fest at the counter to get us our drink order and the restaurant was fairly empty other than a few diners that already had their food and the people at the counter that were there on a social call. I ended up ordering the baba ghanoush it was the major redeeming part of this whole experience even though it took 30+ min (we think she forgot to place the order like she forgot to make my tea that was $2.25 for a cheap tea bag tea) to get served a dish that essentially gets scooped out of a storage container and served with some sliced veggies. I will say it was very good baba ghanoush and the muffin Brenda order was also very tasty... but with the 15 min wait for the drink order, having to get the menus ourselves, the 30 min wait with a restless baby for my dish, overpriced tea that she forgot to bring me.. I might go there again, but only if I happen to be passing through downtown Fairbanks, have a lot of time on my hands and have a hankering for something a little different. Sadly it really does have the potential to be a decent little eatery in a town that is lacking in them, but it has a long way to go before they would be tolerated as a dining establishment with questionable waitstaff. Long story short or short story long... I saw their solstice cakes which looked like a personal sized pineapple upside down cake and it made me crave pineapple upside down cake but I really didn't want to spend anymore money at that business so I decided to make my own.
I mostly followed the recipe from simply recipes, except where they asked for 1-3/4 cups sugar I used 1 about cup and I didn't have any cake flour, I added dried cherries and a bunch of candied ginger to the caramel topping. It was a decadent happy taste buds wonderland with the 3 sticks of butter it takes to create this dense.. Yay calorie bomb!!
I have a side of homemade whipped cream..
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