Pear Upside Down Gingerbread Cake
How does caramelized pears with a hint of brandy baked under a warm gingerbread cake sound about now? Pear Upside Down Gingerbread cake literally tastes & smells like the holidays!
Lucky me! Once again I was invited to bake in a historic home with a 7′ wood-fired stone oven. As I proud baking-geek, I can tell you that I anticipate these baking days the way a 4-year-old anticipates Christmas morning. As soon as the invitation comes in, I gleefully begin planning what I will bake.
Because the heat in this oven is pretty intense, especially early in the day as the fire is heating up, I try to plan for items that like to bake hot. Of course, breads like a hot oven for a big oven-spring and crisp crust. I’ve also found that crackers and flatbreads do really well in this oven.
This year I made another sourdough loaf (that’s a given!) and I made Sourdough Soft Pretzels. It took a bit of trial and error to figure out exactly how to bake the pretzels. But once the kinks were worked out, they baked beautifully. That recipe will be in a later post.
With the hot floor and super high temps, a stone wood-fired oven is a great place to bake a flat tart with thinly sliced fruit. On previous baking-days I’ve made Fruit Galettes for dessert. I wanted to change things up this year and considered other desserts that might do well in the heat of the big oven.
Since I’m still using up the bounty of pears given to me by a friend, I wanted to feature pears in the dessert. The pears he gave me are “winter pears”. They’re meant for long storage so they’re quite firm and hold their shape really well when baked. I figured they could stand up to the heat of the wood-fired oven.
So I made one of my favorite go-to fruit desserts, an upside down cake. I just love the contrast of gooey caramel, chunky fruit and soft cake. Pears and ginger always work well together, so using gingerbread for the cake-part was an easy choice.
To tell the truth, the cake didn’t do that well in the wood-fired oven. Part of the fun (if you’re a baking geek) of using this oven is trying to figure out where the hot spots are and finding just the right temperature for each item to bake perfectly.
When I put the cake in to bake, the floor of the oven wasn’t quite hot enough and the upper part of the oven was too hot. So the cake was burned on top (which would be the bottom of the cake once it was upside-down) and the batter right under the fruit (which was the bottom in the oven but the top once it was upside down)…ARG. Too confusing! Anyway I baked it again in my home oven and it was perfect.
This does make a large cake since I baked it in a 12″ skillet. If your pan is smaller you can reduce the recipe by 1/3 or 1/2, or make the full recipe and use the extra batter for muffins or a mini-loaf. This is not one of those fussy recipes that must be very precise.
I suggest you enjoy it warm with a cup of coffee for breakfast, or with whipped cream, ice cream or a drizzle of brandy-spiked Crème Anglaise for dessert.
Click through the slider to see how to make a Pear Upside Down Gingerbread Cake:
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Pear Upside Down Gingerbread Cake
Ingredients
Caramel Topping
- 2 oz unsalted butter
- 1 oz brandy (2 tablespoons)
- 6 oz brown sugar (¾ cup)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 lbs Pears (peeled, cored, cut into quarters)
Cake Batter
- 10 oz all purpose flour (2 cups, see note)
- 3 oz cake flour (¾ cup)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 9 oz molasses (¾ cup)
- 8 oz water (1 cup)
- 4 oz unsalted butter
- 4 oz brown sugar (½ cup)
- 1 large egg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F.
Caramel Topping
- Combine 2 oz unsalted butter, 1 oz brandy, 6 oz brown sugar, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract and ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon in a 12" cast iron skillet. Heat until the butter is melted and the mixture just begins to boil.
- Place as many of the pear slices as you can fit into the caramel and cook until the bottoms are beginning to brown. Flip the pears over. Add more pears as the pears in the pan shrink and make more room. Continue to cook until the pears are tender about ½ way through. Turn off the heat and set aside while preparing the batter
Batter
- Sift 10 oz all purpose flour, 3 oz cake flour, 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon ground ginger, ½ teaspoon ground cloves and ¼ teaspoon table salt into a bowl and set aside. Mix 9 oz molasses and 8 oz water together and set aside.
- Cream 4 oz unsalted butter and 4 oz brown sugar until light and aerated. Scrape the bowl and add 1 large egg. Mix to combine. With the mixer running on low, alternate adding the dry ingredients and the molasses in 3 batches. Gently pour the batter over pears and smooth to an even layer.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until the cake is puffed and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes in the pan.
- Run a paring knife or small spatula around the edges of the pan to make sure the cake isn't sticking. Place a large serving platter over the pan and flip the cake, pear side up.
- If any pears stick to the pan simply lift them out with a spatula and place them back onto the cake. Enjoy warm.
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Hi Eileen. I just noticed my third time through this that in the second sentence in the 3rd step of the batter that a word is left out. I have assumed the word is “egg” and acted accordingly. You might want to check that out.
Oh, geez. Thanks for catching that, Jody! I’ve fixed the recipe instructions. Hope all is well with you.
This recipe also fits a 9×13 cake pan perfectly. It was fabulous.
I made the caramel topping in the oven and then placed pear wedges in rows and let them all bake until a little soft. I added candied and fresh ginger as well to the cake mix because we are a family of ginger lovers. It got better and better over 3 days. Then it was gone.
Thank you!
That sounds fabulous, Jody. More ginger is always better!
Can you leave out the Brandy or substitute something in its place?
You could use a little apple juice instead.
Bourbon is even better!