Pear Upside Down Cake
By: Anonymous
Published: Wednesday, December 9, 2009 - 10:54pm

Ingredients




1/2 cup Blanched whole almonds
4 tablespoons Unsalted butter melted, plus
9 tablespoons Unsalted butter softened
1/2 cup Packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon Ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon Ground cloves
2 tablespoons Light corn syrup
3 Pears peeled, cored, and halved
1 1/2 cups Pastry flour
3/4 cup Granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon Baking powder
1/4 teaspoon Baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 cup Sour cream
3 lrg Egg yolks
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

Preparation

1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 2 Spread the almonds on a baking sheet and toast, shaking the pan occasionally, until lightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Set aside to cool. Turn the oven temperature down to 325 degrees. 3 Stir together the melted butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves and corn syrup and evenly coat the bottom and sides of a 10-inch glass pie plate with the mixture. When the almonds are cool, arrange around the bottom rim of the pie plate, with a few in the center, pressing them into the brown sugar mixture. Arrange the pear halves like spokes of a wheel on top of the brown sugar mixture. 4 In a mixing bowl, combine the pastry flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and thoroughly mix. 5 In another bowl, whisk together the softened butter, sour cream, egg yolks and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients and mix with an electric mixer at medium speed about 1 1/2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally, until thick and smooth. 6 Using a spatula, spread the batter evenly over the fruit, building up the outside edges so the cake will be level when baked. Bake 40 to 50 minutes, until golden-brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. 7 Transfer to a rack and cool 3 to 5 minutes (no longer) and then invert onto a serving plate, repositioning the fruit as necessary. 8 This recipe yields 8 servings.