Winter Spiced Pear Cake (Gluten Free!)
By: Laura Bray
Published: Sunday, December 8, 2013 - 4:00pm

Ingredients




Spiced Sugar:
1/4 cup sucanat
1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice blend
The cake:
1 stick (8 tbsp) local, unsalted butter at room temp
spiced sugar (see recipe above)
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 large eggs
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup arrowroot flour
1/2 cup almond flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 large pinches of fine sea salt
1/4 cup full fat coconut cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 medium ripe but firm pears
2 sprinkles of lemon juice

Preparation

1 Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Butter/grease a 9-10” cake pan. 2 In a small bowl, stir together the sucanat, cardamom, pumpkin spice blend, and cinnamon. Set aside 2 tablespoons of the spiced sugar to top the cake at the very end; add the rest to the butter. Cream together the butter, maple syrup, and two tbsp of the spiced sucanat with a mixer, scraping down the sides of the bowl, for about 3 minutes. 3 Add the eggs one at a time, and beat to incorporate each egg. 4 In a separate medium bowl, sift together the coconut, arrowroot, and almond flours, and the baking powder, and salt. Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir on low until just combined. Add the coconut cream and vanilla, and mix on low until just combined.  Finally,  add the remaining dry ingredients, mixing until just combined.  The mixture will be quite thick. 5 Now, cut the pears off of their cores. Slice up one cup of medium sized pear cubes, and cut the rest of the pears into 1/2” wedges.  Drizzle the lemon juice over the wedges to preserve them;  Fold the pear cubes into the batter and transfer the batter to the greased cake pan. 6 Take the pear wedges and fan them out around the cake, or create your own design if you like! Press them into the batter a little bit so that some of the batter comes through.  Sprinkle the leftover 2 tbsp spiced sugar over the top of the cake. 7 Bake the cake until a toothpick comes out just barely clean, about 35-50 minutes (Varies depending on the oven). 8 This cake is perfect with coffee, with breakfast, for afternoon snack, or for dessert! 9 Enjoy!

About

Warm and delicate winter spice cake with farmer's market pears.  This cake is great with a cup of tea or coffee, for breakfast, snack, or dessert.  Enjoy because it's healthy, too!