Fluffy coconut and nutmeg and clove cake with coconut caramel pears. This upside down pear cake is a seasonal dessert/ the perfect treat for an autumn afternoon.
Iam currently sitting by the fireplace, drinking an afternoon earl grey and eating this pear cake. I have no plans to leave my beautiful apartment today. Life is good. I made this cake this morning, and though I have been making upside down cakes forever (because they are so pretty, easy, and delicious), I made a few tweaks to my usual recipe and it turned out so well.
I love pears, and they are perfectly in season right now. The problem however, is that once they are ripe, you have a super small window to eat them. The other problem, is that I bought way too many pears and then went away for the weekend, so I am trying to use them up. Often I make an upside down cake with apples, but pears actually worked better because they cook softer!
The other change I made is using coconut milk in place of butter in the caramel, and milk in the cake. I was actually inspired by Earthy Andy, and her vegan salted caramel recipe using coconut milk and palm sugar. The coconut flavour isn’t strong, but it definitely adds a richness to the cake, and compliments the pears in the caramel.
Overall, this cake is delicious. If you have a lazy afternoon like I do, you really should make it right now.
Pear and Coconut Upside Down Cake
Ingredients
- 1 pear (Bartlett)
- 3/4 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp salt (+ 1 pinch for the caramel)
- 1/2 cup butter (softened)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325˚F
- Line a 8 or 9 inch baking pan with wax paper.
- Cut the pear longitudinally into 0.5cm slices, and arrange in the pan.
- In a small saucepan, add 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup coconut milk. Stir and carefully bring to boil over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt. Pour mixture over the pears.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, spices, and 1/4 salt.
- In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric beaters until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time until smooth.
- Add half of the flour mixture, beat until combined. Add half the remaining coconut milk (1/8 cup + 1/8 cup), beat until combined. Repeat until all ingredients used.
- The mixture should be smooth and quite thick. Pour/spread carefully over the pears and caramel.
- Bake for 1 hour. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before flipping onto serving tray.
