Pear and Pecan Cinnamon Cake

Pear and Pecan Cinnamon Cake

I am celebrating the birthday of a dear friend this weekend and wanted a special cake for the occasion. I combined ripe pears with pecans and cinnamon sugar to create this moist and flavorful cake. I had both Bosc and Bartlett pears, but use whatever pears you have on had. They should be ripe, but still firm. The recipe says to have the pears peeled and sliced, and ready to go in the cake. I actually made the batter first, then prepped the fruit. Mostly because I was distracted and forgot. It worked out  just fine. The upside was that the pears did not have a chance to discolor, and I didn’t have to put them in lemon water until ready to use.

The cake is fine served all on its own, but we will be having our cake with ice cream later tonight.

Pear and Pecan Cinnamon Cake

1 c. oil- I like to use olive oil

4 eggs

1 t. vanilla

1/3 c. orange or lemon juice

3 c. flour

2 c. sugar

3 t. baking powder

¼ t. salt

3-4 pears, peeled, cored and sliced

½ c. sugar

1 T. cinnamon

¾ c. pecan halves or pieces

Grease a 9×13 inch pan. Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Combine oil with eggs, vanilla and juice until well blended. In separate bowl, mix dry ingredients and add to egg mixture. Beat together until batter is smooth. Batter will be thick. Combine the ½ cup sugar with the cinnamon. Set aside. Place ½ of batter in prepared pan. Arrange pear slices on batter and sprinkle on ½ of the cinnamon mixture. Pour on remaining batter and top with the pecans. Sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture. Bake 50- 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cake comes out clean. Cool before slicing. Serves 10-12.