Upside down pear cake

Upside down pear cake

Ingredients:

For the caramel sauce

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup butter, cut into cubes

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice or orange juice

For the cake:

3 medium size pears

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar (packed down)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Peel, core and slice the pears and lay them down in the bottom of a 9″inch greased cake pan.  You can add them in a circular pattern or create a pattern of your own.

Heat the sugar, water and lemon juice over medium high heat until the color starts to turns amber.  This will take several minutes but watch carefully as it can go from amber to burnt fairly quickly.  Once you reach the amber color, remove from the heat and stir in the butter.  It may splatter a tiny bit so be careful.  Pour the mixture over the pears and spread evenly.

In the bowl of your mixer, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, then add the eggs, one at a time and mix until well combined.  Don’t forget to scrape the sides of the bowls after each egg.  Add the vanilla.

Add the cinnamon to the flour and add in batches to the mixer, alternating with the milk.  Mix until well combined and then pour the batter into your cake pan.

Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy!