In Honor of Friends and Fall

Friends are coming for dinner tomorrow night and pears are perfectly in season. So in honor of friends and fall, I baked a cake tonight. This is a very big deal for me. It requires that I follow directions and measure carefully -- both cooking skills that I simply don't possess. I'm confident that tonight's cake will be delicious because, truth be told, I made this same recipe a few weeks ago. It was so good I had to send half of it home with Maggie for fear I'd eat it all myself.

Start with four perfectly ripe peeled pears...

The recipe comes from friend Lynn and includes directions for a caramel glaze
– but the cake is so good without it, and it might be pushing my luck to think I could actually ice a cake –
that I chose to leave it plain.

 

 Just in case you are inspired, here's the recipe for Lynn's Pear Cake:

THE CAKE
4 ripe Bartlett pears, peeled and diced (3 cups)
1 tablespoon sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1.25 cups vegetable oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1.5 cups pecans, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Toss together pears and 1 tablespoon sugar; let stand 5 minutes. Beat eggs, 2 cups sugar and oil at medium speed with an electric mixer. Combine flour, slat and baking soda and add to egg mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Fold in pears, chopped pecans and vanilla extract. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch Bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Remove from pan and drizzle Caramel glaze over warm cake.

CARAMEL GLAZE
1 stick margarine
1.5 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup heavy cream
2-3 cups powdered sugar

Combine margarine, brown sugar and cream in heavy saucepan. Bring to boil for 2 minutes. Watch carefully. Remove from heat and beat in about 2 cups powdered sugar. If too thick, add more cream. If too thin, add more sugar. (Remember, as icing cools it will thicken.) Ice cake while icing is still warm.

Enjoy!