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Pear Gingerbread Upside-Down Cake

Submitted by apratt on Tue, 2010-06-08 18:48
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An upside-down cake is a beautiful thing. But a Pear Gingerbread Upside-Down Cake? Well it's beautiful and extra-delicious! This classic dessert cake recipe is a baking creation that's dense, moist and brings out the best flavours of brown sugar and molasses. What makes this gingerbread cake special is the use of black pepper, an excellent complement to the pears. And if you take the time to artfully arrange the fruit in the base of the pan,the top of the resulting cake will banish any thought of decorative toppings. Pear Gingerbread Upside-Down Cake: Another tasty recipe from the SugarBaby Brown Sugar Saver Kitchen.

What You Need

For the base:
2 to 3 ripe, but still firm pears, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
For the gingerbread batter:
1-1/2 cups flour
3-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/8 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup soft,golden brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
1/2 cup light molasses

What To Do

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Spray 9-inch springform cake pan with nonstick vegetable oil spray, or grease well with butter.
3. Arrange pears in the cake pan so that no part of the pan’s bottom is showing.
4. Sift all the dry ingredients together into medium bowl, set aside.
5. Cream butter and sugar together in large bowl, add the egg and beat until well blended.
6. Add the milk and vanilla and beat until smooth.
7. Add molasses and beat well.
8. In a separate large bowl, mix in dry ingredients alternately with wet ingredients, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.
9. Pour batter over the pears in the prepared pan.
10. Bake cake on centre oven rack for about 40 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.
11. Transfer the pan to rack and let cool for about 10 minutes. If necessary, use a knife to loosen cake before releasing the pan and turn the cake out onto rack.
12. Serve warm or at room temperature with ice cream or whipped cream.

Sweet Advice

  • Planning a party? This cake can be made a day ahead. Simply cover and store at room temperature.
  • 2% milk is best in this recipe. You could use 1%, but skim milk does not work well.
  • Be sure to not over-beat the batter when mixing the wet and dry ingredients together. Each time you add the dry ingredients, mix until it’s just blended in and move on. Don’t worry if the batter looks a little lumpy.