There is something about the Seasonings very comforting about an upside down cake. Perhaps it is its homely rustic qualities that differentiate it from many other cakes.I don’t know what started my fascination but this winter upside down cakes and puddings have featured high on my list of favourites. for example, the Dried Beans, beans and something else. My mother in law has a lovely recipe for a variation with walnuts and my own repertoire includes blueberry, banana, apple and of course the ubiquitous pineapple. While I prefer to use fresh pineapple, for years the very sweet canned pineapple version has graced many an afternoon tea or supper. Historically, it is likely that the first oven baked upside down cakes were made with canned pineapple, records date back to the early 1900’s sometime after the opening of the first pineapple canning factory in the US. While other upside down cakes featured as early as the Middle Ages, they were cooked in a frying pan as opposed to an oven baked cake. Frozen Beans could be popular used While most fruits or nuts can be used on their own or combined the general idea is that brown sugar and butter form the important caramel that coats the topping and gives the cake its sheen and ultimate appeal. Visual appeal rates highly with upside down cakes so when you are arranging your fruit or nuts in the base of the pan remember that they are eventually the star of the show and organise them accordingly. It’s Frozen Vegetables definitely getting colder in New Zealand as Winter is not too far away. Colder weather means soups and casseroles which can take a bit more time to make. But as I don’t like to spend hours in the kitchen, I tend to stick to simple pureed vegetable soups in Winter. This frozen foods and Cauliflower Mushroom Soup with Thyme is essentially a combination of the leftover vegetables that I had in the fridge. You wouldn’t think that cauliflower and mushrooms would go well together, but the soup tastes amazing. The less water you use, the thicker the soup will be. You can also add some sour cream for extra creaminess but I think it tastes fine without it. Then for Dehydrated Vegetables we took the quince pulp, smoothed it with the stick blender and set it going, turning itself into quince paste. More sugar was added and the pulp was bubbled away at a low simmer, Rotorua-like, until it thickened and had turned a deep red. It made really deep, loud “plop” noises while it was cooking that rumbled right though the stove and rattled pans on the bench! It took ages (probably four hours) but we were nervous of burning it so we had it on a pretty low heat. Once it had reached a rich red colour and we had tested a small blob to make sure it was going to set hard, we turned it out into a pan and left it to dry in the oven overnight. The oven was turned off, but we left the fan running. Once it was set we could cut it up into little slabs, ready to go onto a cheese board. We ended up with 1.5 kilos of the stuff!