Pear Upside Down Spice Cake
Warm spice cake baked over sweet fresh pears with brown sugar and butter. Invert and serve warm with vanilla ice cream or sweetened whipped cream. These cakes are baked individually so they are perfect for plating all fancy or eating while lounging on the couch watching your favorite show!
Ingredients
Topping
- 1 Tablespoon Butter salted
- 8 teaspoons Light brown sugar
- 1 medium Pear
Spice cake
- ⅔ cup Whole white wheat flour
- ⅓ cup Cane sugar
- ¾ teaspoon Baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon Sea salt
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon Nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon Cloves
- 1 large Egg
- ½ cup Buttermilk
- ¼ cup Cooking oil
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
Garnishes
- Sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream
- Caramel sauce (optional) see notes
Instructions
For the topping
- Cut the butter into four equal pieces. Put one piece of butter and 2 teaspoons of brown sugar into four 6 ounce ramekins. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Put the ramekins on a tray and place into the oven while it preheats until the butter is melted. Remove from the oven and stir each one together then spread evenly over the bottoms.
- Peel core and dice the pear into roughly ¼ inch pieces. Divide between the ramekins (it should be about ¼ cup each) press them into the bottoms but don't mash them.
For the spice cake
- Combine the first 8 ingredients in a small bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix until combined. Pour over the pears dividing evenly between the four ramekins.
- Bake for 27-32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let rest five minutes and then invert onto serving plates or a cooling rack if you plan to plate them all fancy (see direction below). Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
To plate
- Put a spoonful of caramel toward the edge ⅓ of your plate. Smear it across ⅔ of the plate with the spoon. Place a cake on the end of the caramel smear. Put a quenelle or scoop of whipped cream or ice cream on the outer edge of the plate half way between the cake and the other end of the caramel. Hope that makes sense! You can refer to the picture for a visual.
Notes
If you are going to use caramel sauce and want to make your own we have a recipe for it in our Pear Tart recipe.