Yes, Yes I did!! I made a Pear Upside Down Cake with an espresso walnut cake base and fresh fall pears. Instead of hiding those beautiful pears in the batter I wanted to showcase them front and center. With every bite you taste warm espresso and cinnamon spiced pears. To add a little crunch to all the the soft textures, I mixed chopped walnuts into the batter. Then maybe I poured a vanilla cream glaze on top to tie it all together!
Tips for a Pear Upside Down Cake:
- Use a spring form cheesecake pan for baking. For this recipe I used a 9 inch pan. Makes removing your cake without damaging your pears much easier.
- Butter Butter Butter the bottom of that pan before layering your pears. (cold butter)
- Use Room Temperature butter when creaming together butter and sugar for batter.
- Self Rising Flour already contains baking powder and salt. If you need to substitute for All Purpose Flour use the same flour measurement of 1 ⅓ Cups (200 g) and add 2 tsps baking powder and ½ tsp salt.
- Dilute your instant coffee powder with water or for added espresso punch put powder directly into batter.
- Let the cake cool in the pan before removing.
- Mix your glaze in a small bowl with a whisk. To create thicker glaze simply add more powdered sugar. For a thinner glaze add a touch more milk, using a tsp at a time. Powdered sugar is very absorbent, so it doesn’t take much.
Technically this is a dessert, but I think its ok to enjoy a slice with a cup of coffee for breakfast. What do you think?!
Servings: 8 slices
Calories: 376kcal
Ingredients
Batter
- 11 Tbsp (150 g) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 3 Large Eggs
- ¾ Cup (150 g) Light Brown Sugar or Coconut Sugar
- 1 ⅓ Cups (200 g) Self Rising Flour
- 3 Tbsp Vanilla Almond Milk
- 3 Tbsp Instant Coffee dissolved into 2 Tbsp hot water
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ tsp Ground Nutmeg
- 1 Cup (125 g) Chopped Walnuts
Layering Pears
- 4 Bosc Pear peeled, core removed and sliced
- 3 Tbsp Cold Butter for coating baking pan
- 2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon for Sprinkling on Butter
Vanilla Glaze
- 1 Cup (125 g) Powdered Sugar
- ¼ Cup (60 ml) Almond Milk
- 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 350 F (180 C)
- Whisk together sifted flour and nutmeg in a small bowl and set aside.
- In bowl of stand mixer with whisk attachment, beat together sugar and butter on medium high until smooth.
- Add eggs and whip until foamy.
- Continue by pouring in coffee, milk, and vanilla.
- Slowly spoon flour and nutmeg mixture into liquid batter, continuing on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom as needed with spatula to incorporate all ingredients.
- Once batter is smooth and creamy, fold in chopped walnuts using a hand spatula.
- Generously coat sides and bottom of spring form cake pan with (9 inch) with cold butter. ( I grab chunk of butter with fingertips and rub across surface.)
- Sprinkle the bottom of pan only with a dusting of cinnamon.
- Layer bottom of pan with sliced pears in a circular pattern. (two think layers that cover bottom of cake pan to prevent batter from seeping through.)
- Spoon cake batter onto pears and level with spatula.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
- Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing sides and flipping upside down onto cooling rack.
- Prepare vanilla glaze while cake is cooling.
- Stir vanilla glaze ingredients together in a small bowl with hand whisk. Add more powdered sugar for thicker glaze and more milk for thinner glaze.
- Gently lift bottom of pan from the pears slowly to prevent tearing pears.
- Slice and serve warm with a drizzle of vanilla glaze!!
Nutrition
Calories: 376kcal
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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