Modern Family: Lily’s Pineapple Cake & Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade

We’re celebrating my husband’s first birthday as “dad” with Lily’s Pineapple Cake & Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade! And once this was finished, I promptly ordered a more “masculine” ice cream cake for his actual birthday on Tuesday.

These recipes are both listed in the “Princess Birthday Party” Menu at the back of the cookbook, along with Lily’s Pot Stickers. However, I don’t think that they were actually seen at Lily’s birthday party in the show.

Lily’s Pineapple Cake

This recipe has two parts, first there’s the cake and then there’s the pineapple custard.

The cake is pretty simple. Dry ingredients and wet ingredients are mixed separately, and then combined, poured into cake pans, and cooked until done.

My cake got stuck to the pans, but I think that was more an issue with my pans than the batter. I just scraped it off the bottom of the pan and put it back onto the cake. No one will see the mistake anyway once it’s covered with custard!

For the custard, evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks and butter are cooked over the stove before vanilla and crushed pineapple are mixed in.

Once everything is cool, the custard is spread between and on top of the two cake layers. There’s an option to add additional chopped fresh pineapple to the top if you’d like, but I chose to skip it. It probably looks really nice, though!

Taste: 9/10

The pineapple flavor is only in the custard, and is pretty subtle. If you want a strong pineapple flavor I would suggest adding the optional extra chopped fresh pineapple to the top of the cake. The custard was very tasty, and it makes the cake seem lighter than if it were to have regular icing. I thought the cake itself was a bit dense, but the flavor is great.

Difficulty: Average

The cake itself is pretty simple, but you always want to be careful when cooking a custard to make sure you don’t overcook it.

Cost: Cheap / Average

Cost depends on what is already in your cupboard, as many of the ingredients are pretty common. You will need vegetable shortening, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, baking soda, buttermilk, vanilla extract, evaporated milk, butter, and crushed pineapple.

Lily’s Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade

For this recipe, you’ll need to remember to thaw the strawberries and lemonade concentrate in advance, before you begin.

The strawberries are blended and then strained through a sieve into a freezer-proof container. This is mixed with frozen pink lemonade concentrate and some water, stirred, and frozen for a few hours until slushy. I actually forgot my “slush” was in there, and had to leave it out for another 30 minutes or so until it defrosted enough to become slush again.

Once you’re ready to serve, throw the slush into a pitcher and mix with berry-flavored sparkling water. Garnish with lemon slices if you’d like.

Taste: 8/10

I loved the slushy with sparkling texture of this and the flavor was delicious (not too sour), but overall it was just too sweet for me.

Difficulty: Easy

This recipe is easy, but it does require you to start early to thaw the berries and lemonade, and to freeze the mixture so it becomes slush.

Cost: Average

You’ll need frozen strawberries, frozen pink lemonade concentrate, and berry-flavored sparkling water. Lemon slices are optional.