apple & asian pear cake.



Every once in awhile, when I bake a couple things the same day, I completely forget to blog about one of them. I just realized this morning that I missed writing about the above cake, a delicious buttery cake with hand-picked apples and Asian pears baked into the bottom. It was one of those desserts I made on a whim late in the evening when my sweet tooth was calling to me. I put a little whipped cream on top and enjoyed it greatly.

This is the recipe for "My Grandmother's Apple Cake" from one of my favorite cookbooks, the beautiful Chocolate & Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier's blog of the same title. The only thing I changed from the original was adding one Asian pear instead of one of the apples. Which, I think, made it wonderful.

Apple & Asian Pear Cake: adapted just a tiny bit from Chocolate & Zucchini cookbook

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 medium tart apple
1 medium Asian pear (or another apple)
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter in a small saucepan or in a nonmetallic bowl set in the microwave. Grease a nonstick 8-inch round cake pan (not springform) with 1 tablespoon of the butter using a pastry brush or a paper towel.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small mixing bowl. Wash, peel, and core the apple and pear. Cut them in eighths and arrange over the bottom of the pan.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the sugar with the eggs until fluffy. Add the flour mixture and whisk until combined. Add the melted butter and whisk again until blended. Pour the batter evenly over the fruit and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top is set and golden brown.

Let the cake settle on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the pan to loosen and flip the cake onto a plate; if any piece of fruit has stuck to the bottom of the pan, scrape it off carefully and place it back on the cake where it belongs. Flip the cake again onto a serving plate- work cautiously so as to not squish the cake between the two plates. Let cool and serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

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