Pear Upside-Down Cake - A Quickie But Has Great Lasting Power and A Smooth Finish

Looking for a quick dessert, but one that also has lasting power and a smooth finish? Yes indeed, you can have your cake and eat it too! This is also a good recipe for a little experimenting of your own. Kinda sounds like a match.com ad or a post on the M4W board on craigslist, doesn't it? Sigh, oh the joys of being single in the city. I've recently given up on the internet dating scene and am turning my sights to something a little more reliable, like my Cook's Illustrated Magazine, the source for this week's recipe. Cook's Illustrated is a bi-monthly cooking magazine. I prefer the printed version, although I don't have a lot of experience with the online version since they make you pay extra for it. One of my favorite Cook's Illustrated features is the head-to-head comparisons of kitchen gadgets and pantry staples - from coffee grinders and olive oil to cookie sheets and ready made pie doughs. These face-offs are the Consumer Reports of the kitchen world. Cook's also deconstructs recipes and experiments with them to find the use-at-home tips to help every experience level of a cook produce an Nigella Lawson or Alton Brown quality end product. The description of the experimentation process totally appeals to my left brain. For all you geeks who like to cook or want to learn to cook better, this is a good magazine for you. Put it on your holiday list.

In the September/October 2009 issue, Cook's takes us back to the origins of the upside-down cake. Prior to the pineapple craze of the early part of the 1900's, upside-down cakes were made with seasonal fruit. The recipe published in this month's magazine uses apples. My friends Missy and Frank served me a slice of this recipe substituted with pears - I too had pears from my farm share which allowed me to do a little experimenting of my own.

This pear upside-down cake is pretty fantastic - there are so many good things about it. Although there is the added step of caramelizing the pears, the cake is pretty quick to make. The sour cream makes it very smooth and creamy - very moist even after a few days of sitting on the counter just covered by saran wrap. The size was another thing I liked about it (insert your favorite Michael Scott one-liner here). Baking for one is tough - you really don't want to look back and say "Oh no! I ate that whole chocolate cake!" But this cake is baked in a single 9-inch round cake pan - so if you eat the whole thing it doesn't seem so bad, especially if you count the pears as 2 servings of fruit.

I added Grand Marnier to the recipe to give it a little orange flavor. I think experimenting with amaretto or spiced rum would also provide a wonderful complimentary flavor.

Pear Upside-Down Cake
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Serves 8 

You will need a 9-inch nonstick cake pan with sides that are at least 2 inches high. You can also use a 10-inch ovenproof stainless steel skillet (don't use cast iron) to both cook the pears and bake the cake, with the following modifications: Cook the pears in the skillet and set them aside while mixing the batter (it's OK if the skillet is still warm when the batter is added) and increase the baking time by 7 to 9 minutes. If you don't have either a 2-inch high cake pan or an ovenproof skillet, use and 8-inch square pan.

Ingredients
Topping
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, plus extra for the pan
5 pears, peeled and cored (avoid overripe pears)
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 teaspoons Grand Marnier (or 2 tsp of lemon juice)

Cake
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons Grand Marnier (optional)

Instructions
1. FOR THE TOPPING: Butter bottom and sides of 9-inch round, 2-inch-deep nonstick cake pan; set aside. Adjust your oven rack to the lowest position and heat over to 350 degrees.
2. Peel and quarter pears and remove seeds and core. Cut 2 pears into 1/4 thick slices; set aside. Cut remaining 3 pears into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Heat butter in 12-inch skillet over medium heat. When foaming subsides, add 1/2-inch-thick pear slices and cook, stirring 2 or 3 times, until pears begin to caramelized, 4 to 6 minutes. (Do not fully cook pears.) Add 1/4-inch-thick apple slices, brown sugar, and Grand Marnier; continue cooking, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and apples are coated, about 1 minute longer. Transfer apple mixture to prepared pan and lightly press into even layer. Set aside while preparing cake.

Note: When I made the cake, it seemed like there was a lot of "liquid" in this step. This may have been because the pears were too ripe and lots of water was released during the cooking. I did not pour all of the buttery sugar liquid into the cake pan in fear that it would bubble out of the side.

3. FOR THE CAKE: Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside. Whisk granulated sugar, brown sugar, and eggs together in a large bowl until thick and homogenous, about 45 seconds. Slowly whisk in butter until combined. Add sour cream, vanilla, and Grand Marnier; whisk until combined. Add flour mixture and whisk until just combined. Pour batter into pan and spread evenly over fruit. Bake until cake is golden brown and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. You may need to keep an eye on it to make sure the topping does bubble up and over the sides of the pan.

4. Cool pan on wire rack for 20 minutes, allowing the the fruit topping to set. Run paring knife around sides of the cake to loosen. Place wire rack over the cake pan. Holding the rack tightly, invert cake pan and wire rack together; lift off cake pan. Cooling the cake of the wire rack helps the bottom of the cake breathe and avoid sogginess while cooling. Place wire rack over a baking sheet or large plate to catch any drips. If any fruit sticks to the bottom of the pan, remove and position on top of cake. Let cake cool 20 minutes (or longer to cool it completely), then transfer to serving platter, cut into pieces, and serve.

Experiment:

• Substitute 4 Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples (about 2 pounds), peeled and cored instead of the pears
• Upside-Down Cake with Almonds: Follow the recipe, combining 1/3 cup finely ground toasted almonds with flour and substituting Amaretto for the Grand Marnier
• Experiment with other types of alcohol - spiced rum matches well with the apples.