Pear upside-down cake

I successfully resist the urge to bake for... er... almost a week! Okay, okay, not really. I actually did a couple of small baking, which I'll post later this week (another loaf of bread and crepes although you can't really call that baking).

So, the reason behind today's baking is to celebrate my dad's birthday!!!! Oh, wait, but my parents live 24-hours flight away from me, so technically he won't be able to enjoy this particular cake (love you dad, so I'll do rain check cake and make it for you in about a month!). Okay, so the real culprit is this super-ripe-almost-rotten pear. First I sliced it hoping to eat it as is, but then I decided that it's probably better turned into something else. Pear upside-down cake it is! The 'bottom' of the cake consist of caramelized pear, while the cake part is actually gingerbread cake. I made a version of it last Thanksgiving (it was Martha's recipe), my dear friends Vaibhav and Sudip, who sworn they hate hate spices (mainly cinnamon) on sweet stuff, devoured this cake with a little help from whipped cream. I decided that Martha's recipe is too complicated for an impromptu baking night. So I made little modification, scale it down, and simplify the recipe a bit.

blame this guy....

Pear upside-down cake (make 1 loaf pan size)

Caramelized pear layer:

1 tbsp salted butter
1 ripe bartlett pear
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp dark rum

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Put butter and sugar into loaf pan, and put in pre-heated oven until butter and sugar turn into caramel (~10 min, but watch it). Be careful, caramel will be super hot!
2. Meanwhile, slice the pear lengthwise to eight. When the caramel is ready, carefully lay the pear slices on the bottom of the pan with caramel (it'll be hot!!). Splash the rum over the pear, and bake it for 5 minutes until pear is browned.


Gingerbread cake:

4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda, resuspended in 1 tbsp of boiling water (can't find better word than 'resuspended', oh science...)
1/4 cup candied ginger, chopped (more or less depending how you like them)

1. Cream butter and sugar, then beat in molasses and egg until combined.
2. Sift dry ingredients: flour, all the spices, and salt. Fold half into butter mixture, then fold the other half in until well combined. Lastly, fold in candied ginger and the resuspended baking soda.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan with caramelized pear on the bottom. Bake 350F for 15 minutes, then turn down the oven to 325F and bake for another 15 minutes, until toothpick inserted come out clean.
4. Let the cake cool down for 10 minutes before inverting onto a plate. Now the pear becomes the top part of the cake. Enjoy it while warm, serve with scoop of vanilla ice cream or dollop of whipped cream!


ps: I wrote this blog while the cake was baking. I just had a slice........ oh my, it's sooo freakin good! Okay, if you haven't try any of my recipes I posted so far, don't!! This one is much better, go make this first! Now, should I finish the entire cake, so should I bring some to lab?