Pear Upside-Down Cake

Pear Upside-Down Cake is sticky.  I eat it plain or with ice cream and sometimes a whipped topping. This is a versatile recipe and you can also use apples, pineapple,peaches, or any fruit you like.  Recipes for upside-down cakes may be baked in a cast iron pan.  In fact before the 1800’s these cakes were called skillet cakes.  I like to melt my ingredients in a pot and then use a cake pan.  Either way the toppings on the bottom make this cake a show stopper.

The most famous of these cakes is the pineapple upside down cake.  Being Italian, we didn’t eat a lot of pineapples.  I remember my nonno trying to peel one as a kid with his pairing knife.  My favourite story was of him trying to open a coconut.  He finally took a hammer to it.  So many laughs around unfamiliar foods. Today, pineapples are very much loved in Italy.  Mostly, the Italians eat them fresh.  I found that they are very refreshing especially when sitting on the beach in Cefalu, Sicily. Oh, the memories. 

An Italian fruit cake on my blog that my nonna made

https://recipesatmytable.com/nonnas-easy-apricot-custard-cake/

If you would like to try some other upside-down food cake recipes, go to

https://www.foodnetwork.ca/baking/photos/upside-down-cakes/#!slow-cooker-banana-upside-down-cake

Ingredients

The syrup for the bottom

• 1/4 cup of butter
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 3 pears cut into thing slices

The Cake

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cp butter
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp greek yogurt
• juice and zest of half a large orange
• 1 tbsp amaretto

Process

Butter a round cake pan.  Arrange the pears over the bottom of the pan.  Fan them out so that all the thin ends point to the centre.

In a pan over medium heat, melt the butter.  Add in the sugar, brown sugar.  Once it comes to a boil, stir in the maple sugar.

Pour this syrup over the pears.

In a  medium bowl mix together the dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl mix the milk, butter, egg, orange juice, zest and amaretto. 

Add to the dry ingredients and beat at medium speed for a minute or two.

Pour the batter over the pears. Put into a 350 F oven for 30 minutes.  

Out of the oven.

Let cool for 5 minutes and invert onto serving plate.