Nov 252017
Blackberry Pear Upside-Down Cake

Lucy’s parents came over for a casual dinner last weekend and we opted for quick-and-easy pizzas, salad, and garlic bread. But, I never like to forego an opportunity to bake so I began my search for an autumn dessert on Pinterest. I was leaning towards something like tarte tatin or sticky toffee pudding, but I wanted to use my springform pan. I settled on this recipe from Cosmo Cookie, mainly because the pictures of the cake on their blog looked so pretty!

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Everyone loved this cake (including me), and it was really simple to make! I made a couple of tweaks to the original recipe to give the cake a deeper, toffee-vanilla flavour. Even though we’re past American Thanksgiving, if you’re getting together with friends and family this weekend and need a quick autumn-inspired dessert, this is a perfect recipe. I served the cake room temperature with vanilla ice cream. Quick, simple, and delicious!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of fresh blackberries (My shop was sold out so I thawed frozen blackberries and pressed out the excess water)
2 pears, peeled and sliced lengthwise
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. dark brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk

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A beautiful and simple autumn dessert!

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200°C

Line the bottom of an 8 inch springform pan with parchment paper, then butter the paper and the sides of the pan.

Arrange the pear slices in a circular fan shape on the bottom of the pan, then add a layer of blackberries. Sprinkle with the dark brown sugar.

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Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat together the butter and 1/2 cup sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy (2 min.). Add the egg, vanilla bean paste, and cinnamon and mix on low speed until just incorporated.

Alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk in three batches, mixing at low speed until just incorporated.

Spoon the batter evenly over the fruit, smoothing the top. Bake on the middle rack until the top of the cake is golden and a tester comes out clean (mine took approx. 35 min.).

Run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake and then open the spring. Using pot holders, invert the cake onto a plate. Remove the base then peel off parchment.

When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. Mine didn’t cool in time (oh well!).

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