Pear and Pecan Upside Down Cake

Name: Pear and Pecan Upside Down Cake
Yield: For 8 Persons
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda); 1½ teaspoons baking powder; 75g (3 oz/¾ stick) unsalted butter, softened; 100 g (3½ oz/1 cup) pecan nut halves; ½ teaspoon vanilla extract; ½ teaspoon ground ginger; 125g (4½ oz/heaping ¾ cup) caster (granulated) sugar; 100 g (3½ oz/7 tablespoons) unsalted butter; the finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon; 225g (8 oz/1 heaping cup) caster (granulated) sugar; 4 pears, such as William or Comice, peeled, cored and cut into 2 cm (¾ in) slices; 150g (5 oz/1 heaping cup) plain (all-purpose) flour; 4 medium (large) eggs, separated; thick cream or ice cream; ½ teaspoon salt

Preparation info

For
8
Persons

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Cooking at the Merchant House

By Shaun Hill

Published 2000

About

The combination of pear, pecan and caramel is an American classic. William and Comice are the traditional cooking pears and good new varieties are constantly coming onto the market but you should avoid Conference pears as their texture is too hard for this dish.

Ingredients

For the Topping

4 pears, such as William or Comice, peeled, cored and cut into 2 cm (¾

Americas
United States
Dessert
Cake
Vegetarian

Method

To make the topping, toss the sliced pears with the lemon juice and zest. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan, then add the pears and cook gently for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the sugar, ginger and vanilla, extract and cook for 10 minutes.

Remove the pears from the saucepan and place in a bowl. Bring the remaining juices to the boil and simmer until they form a thick, da