Yields:
9 Servings
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 50 Mins
Cook Time:
30 Mins
Total Time:
1 Hr 20 Mins
A perfect and easy cake for the holidays or when the air is cold! Uses pears and the spices of fall to create a gentle cake to serve alongside some hot cocoa!
CandiAnne’s Note: We were stationed at Fort Drum, NY for 4 1/2 years and maple weekend is a huge thing there. You can visit numerous producers, taste their wares, and grab some syrup or other goodies on your way out. In 2007 while visiting the various producers I picked up a bunch of recipe pages on all sorts of categories that were put out by Eat Smart New York which is part of the Cornell Cooperative Extension. These pages were funded by them and the USDA Food Stamp Program.
Ingredients
Adjust Servings
- Pear topping
Instructions
-
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 9x9 inch baking dish with butter or a nonstick spray. (If you need to make buttermilk, do this now and let it sit for up to 30 minutes. 1 cup whole milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar and set aside.)
- Cream butter, pure maple syrup, and sugar until smooth. Add in egg and mix until incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg. Add dry to batter alternating between dry and buttermilk until smooth.
- Pour batter into baking pan and bake at the center of your oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake. Prepare sauce AFTER your cake is cooling down. By the time your cake is cooled down, you will have just finished the sauce. Pear Topping
- Peel pears and set aside. Leave the stem on as it is easier to grab. In a large saucepan, that will fit all three pears, combine water, 2 anise stars, and 1/4 cup sugar to a simmer. Poach pears in sugar water for about 10 minutes or until inserting a knife and it doesn't give resistance. You will notice the pears almost go back to being round again when they are ready. Drain pears and let cool until you can touch them.
- Cut pears in half, decore, and remove stems here so they are just soft fruit. In a blender, puree pears with 1 tbsp sugar and cinnamon until smooth and resembles the consistency of apple sauce.
- Pour puree over cooled cake. Decorate with pears and serve!
Notes
Can be served cold or warmed slightly. Store leftovers in the fridge. Lasts up to a week.