Pear Ginger Upside-Down Cake with Whipped Cream

     Looking for something to please your family this Thanksgiving?
     This is the perfect Thanksgiving, or anytime Autumn cake! 
   I hope you try it for your Thanksgiving breakfast this year, or perhaps as a simple (but delightful) dessert after your Thanksgiving meal. It is one of my favorite cakes now! If you love pears, or ginger, or just coffee cakes in general, you will enjoy this treat.

Pear Ginger Upside-Down Cake with Whipped Cream
(Mazzou-version adapted from original recipe by Rebecca Rather from the cookbook The Pastry Queen Christmas- a favourite cookbook of ours by the way, with a variety of dishes, not just desserts!)

   Make sure you have an appropriate dish in which to create this delightful dessert. You need one with 2-inch tall sides. 
  Our family used a ceramic dish which was about 9-inch square, and taller than 2 inches. Worked well. This is one of our favourite yet easiest cakes to whip up! Can be served warm or cool. You just can't go wrong with this cake!

Serves: 6 to 8

Topping
•1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
•1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
•2 to 3 ripe but firm pears, such as Anjou or Bartlett
•2 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped candied ginger (if you don't have this on hand, see alternative at bottom of post!*)

Cake
•1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter at room temperature (plus a tiny bit to grease sides of pan)
•1 cup granulated sugar
•2 large eggs
•1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
•1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
•1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
•1/2 cup milk
•2 teaspoons vanilla extract
•3 tablespoons finely chopped candied ginger ( If you don't have this on hand, see note below! *)

Whipped Cream - recipe below

Method
You need a 9 or 10-inch cake pan with sides that are at least 2 inches tall.

To make the topping:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. (Grease sides of pan with a little extra butter. I think I also gave a hint of butter to the bottom of the pan, since I didn't want the carmelizing brown sugar to stick in the following part)...
2. Put the butter and brown sugar in the cake pan and place it in the oven until melted and bubbly, about 10 minutes.
3. Core the pears (no need to peel them) and cut them into 1/4-inch thick slices.
4. Remove the pan from the oven, stir to combine the butter and sugar, and arrange the pears on top of the mixture in a circular pattern. Don't worry if you end up with a second layer of pears. Sprinkle the candied ginger (or gingered pear bits*) evenly over the pears.

To make the cake:
1.  Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
2. Add the eggs and beat for another 30 seconds.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl.
4. To the butter mixture, add the flour mixture in 3 increments alternating with the milk in two increments, starting and ending with the flour, beating on low speed between each addition.
5. Stir in the vanilla and candied ginger. (or gingered pear bits*)
6. Pour the batter evenly over the pears. Bake for about 45 minutes if using a 10-inch pan and about 55 minutes for a 9-incher. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Remove from the oven and immediately (or within 5 minutes but no longer!) invert onto a large cake plate. Let cool for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, make the whipped cream.

Whipped Cream
•1 cup cold heavy whipping cream
•1/8 cup powdered sugar (optional)
•2 tsp. vanilla extract
Using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cream on high speed until soft peaks form. Beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla.

Serve the cake, slightly warm, with the whipped cream alongside.
Serves: 6 to 8

Variation:
-Serve with vanilla icecream- delicious!
- Serve with entirely unsweetened whipped cream
-Thirdly, if you must, you may serve this with whipped topping.

*Gingered Pear bits*
-1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
-2 pears, preferably not too ripe, chopped
- honey (about 2 Tablespoons, depending on how much ginger you use)
-dried ginger  (about 3 tsp.)
-optional: chopped fresh ginger
This is a play-by-taste little recipe!
   Using a small pot, heat the butter and add the chopped pear with the honey. Heat until bubbling, making sure  honey doesn't burn!
   Add ginger in increments, tasting as you go. You may need to add more honey! That is fine. Your goal is a strong ginger flavour with a bit of chew/crunch. Think candied ginger...
I will try to get a real recipe written up soon! Next time I make this delicious cake for my family!

A Thanksgiving table inspiration with pears and fall leaves

Decorating with pears as placecards!

With Thanksgiving only a week away, I wanted to share some ideas and pictures from an Autumn party we did November 2013!

This is a simple table involving your lovely dishware, pears and glass hurricanes filled with water and floating leaves!

Instead of namecards, we tied a tag with each person's name onto the stem of a pear! You could do this with any stemmed fruit, really. 

We sat the pears, along with a couple leaves on dessert plates which were placed on larger, neutral-toned lunch plates. You can use whatever colours, shapes and sizes you want! We used glass plates; I know paper would look nice as well. 

For the candle display down the center of the table, we used a variety of sizes of clear glass hurricanes. 

You will need to collect beautiful fall leaves. We used mostly pear leaves since they are smaller and more sturdy. 

We  covered the bottom of each glass hurricane with clear craft glue. 

We then secured the leaves, stem-down, into the glue.

Make sure the glue is dry, then fill the glass containers with room-temperature water and add floating tealights.

As the hours progressed, the glue unstuck from the bottom of the containers, letting the leaves float to the middle of the container!This gave the look of leaves floating in ice water, which was very charming. I love how accidents often turn out beautifully. Whether the glue stays stuck to the bottom or not for you, this will be impressive.

hurricanes with leaves, water and floating candles

How to rim a glass with sugar: 

1. Pour the sugar you want to use on a saucer or plate. Use plenty to make sure the rim gets covered, and make sure the circle of powder is bigger in diameter than the rim of your glass.
2. Moisten the rim with a wedge of lemon, lime or orange. Or dip in a dish of sweetened (syrup) water. Rub along the glass slowly to make an even line. If using the syrup water, just dip carefully. 
3. Turn the glass upside down and dip it in sugar
4. Depending on how much sugar you want on the rim, you can try twisting the glass in the sugar for more, or just simply dipping for less sugar. Twisting it is sometimes tricky to keep a straight rim. 

Ingredients

You can rim glasses with anything powdered. The possibilities are pretty much endless. 

• Rimming options: 
• Cocoa. Perfect for chocolate martinis.
• Cinnamon rim. Mix 1 part white sugar with one part cinnamon for a Autumn flavour
• Crushed candy or cookies. Basically, anything you can powder can be used as a rim.
• Crushed graham crackers. Works on pretty much any drink that’s good with a sugar rim.
• Ginger. Mix equal parts sugar and powdered ginger.
• Powdered drink mixes. Not every powdered drink mix is the right texture for sticking to the glass, but you can usually work around that by moistening the glass differently – for example, simple syrup may work better on really fine powders than citrus. A powdered mint hot chocolate mix makes a Chocolate Mint rimmer.. Kool-Aid mixes can be great for fruity drinks.

Don't forget to get out and enjoy the Autumn splendor!

(or the snow, depending on which state you reside in!)