Pear Upside-Down Cake
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3 fresh pear halves or canned, peeled, cored, and sliced
- 1¼ cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup milk
- ⅓ cup oil
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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In a medium saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar together over low heat, stirring occasionally until dissolved. (Alternatively use your microwave at half power or less in 30 second increments, stirring each time, until melted. If you go longer or at a higher power setting, you may have a buttery mess on your hands. Consider yourself warned!)
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Pour caramel mixture into 9-inch round cake pan.
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Top with sliced pears, working from the inside to the outside, creating a spiraled pattern.
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In a medium mixing bowl, mix together dry ingredients.
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In a large mixing bowl, mix together milk, oil, egg, and vanilla until just blended.
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Add dry mixture to wet mixture and stir until just incorporated.
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Pour cake batter into pan over caramel and pears.
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Place cake in middle rack in oven. On a lower rack, place a large cookie sheet directly underneath the cake pan to catch any possible drips.
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Bake approximately 50-60 minutes, or until caramel has bubbled up around the sides, cake is golden brown and a toothpick comes out with dry crumbs adhering to it.
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Remove from oven and let cake stand for approximately 10 minutes on a wire rack. (This is an important step: if you turn cake out too soon, some of the topping of your cake might fall apart; alternatively, if you turn cake out too late, you may not be able to get the cake out because the caramel will have cooled too much and stuck to the pan.)
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Flip cake out onto a serving dish and serve warm or cold.
Recipe Notes
Quick Tips:
1. It is absolutely essential to put a cookie sheet underneath the cake while baking. If not, you may be doing a thorough scrub down of your oven when you are done as a little caramel may leak out.
2. A 9-inch pan the perfect size for this recipe.
Smaller - you will incur some of the caramel bubbling over as mentioned above (you can try leaving out a little of the batter to avoid this).
Larger - the caramel won't bubble up the sides quite right - still delicious, but not living up to its full potential.
Change it Up:
1. Substitute approximately 6 fresh or canned pineapple rings in place of pears for the traditional Pineapple Upside-Down Cake.
2. Substitute 1-2 apples, peeled and thinly sliced and sprinkled with a little bit of cinnamon (and nutmeg) in place of the pears.
2. Replace ½ of the milk with juice from the canned fruit you are using for a denser, slightly sweeter, and deeper-colored cake.