Pear Spice Upside Down Cake

This cake has a lot going for it. Not the least of which is, from my point of view, that it bakes best in an iron frying pan. [see the end of the recipe for directions on how to bake it in a regular glass baking dish] Larry gave me my iron frying pan as a Birthday gift in 1981. I have a picture stuck in my head of he and Ellyn watching with great anticipation, as I opened it, and how gratified they were when my pleasure became evident. It probably cost less than $10 that long ago, but trust me, that was not an insignificant amount of money to us back then. In the years since, it has graced our kitchen just about non-stop, save for a brief period when I was wooed away by a non-stick substitute. The patina on it now is so ingrained, that I never have to worry about it rusting, and each time I use it, it contains small memories of hamburg pies, frittatas, sauteed veggies and a thousand other meals our family enjoyed, that came before whatever I am making now. It is the perfect vessel for an upside-down cake, because the fruit has a chance for a deeper caramel flavor, when it is simmered in the butter and sugar before being doused with cake batter and put in the oven. This is an easy, pretty inexpensive dessert that gives you a fine result, and smells like heaven’s kitchen while it bakes.

To get started, preheat the oven to 350 degrees – it is very important to have the oven good and hot when it’s time to put the cake in, so that it doesn’t cool things off which will make the cake tougher than it should be. Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a 10 inch iron frying pan, and mix in 1/3 cup of light brown sugar.Peel and core 3 ripe, but still firm, pears and place them flat side down in the pan. Leave them to simmer over medium heat while you prepare the cake batter.
6 tablespoons soft butter
2/3 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1-2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
1 & 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 cup buttermilk
Cream together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and the ginger. Whisk the dry ingredients together in another bowl, and add to the butter/egg mixture in 3 parts, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and alternating with the buttermilk. Remove pan from the heat, and spoon the batter over the pears as evenly as possible. It may seem like it won’t be enough, but it will puff up and cover the fruit.
Immediately put the pan in the preheated oven, and bake for about 30 minutes. Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then invert onto a plate.Though it will stay nice for a couple days, it is truly best eaten within an hour or so of baking. Vanilla ice cream is a nice counterpart, as it whipped cream or even a little pool of vanilla custard on the plate.It goes really nicely with just a fork too…

To bake using a dish – melt the butter in a regular saute pan, mix in the sugar, and lay the pears on the bottom to simmer, as in the iron pan. Grease an 8×8 inch flat glass baking dish, and arrange the pears in the bottom, pouring the liquids from the pan over top the fruit. Spoon the batter evenly over the pears, and bake in the preheated 350 oven for about 40 minutes, until the cake tests done. Cool 5 minutes and invert onto a plate.

Other posts you may enjoy:
Peach Cobbler
Chablis Ginger Pear Crisp