Monday, August 20, 2012

Asian Pear Upside Down Cake


My neighbor Esther gave me a lot homegrown Asian pear from her backyard. They were crunchy and sweet. Carlos is not a fan of Asian pear so I am the only one eating it. Since it is organically grown it won’t last too long. I have them fresh but I can only eat so much. In order not to let them go to waste I decided to bake with it. I never bake with Asian pear before and not sure how it will turn out. But I am glad they turn out well, not mushy as I expected (because of the extra water content in asian pear). The recipe I used is from my previous Apple Upside Down Cake with minor modification.



Ingredients for the caramel (for the bottom of the cake)

3-4 Asian Pear (peel and slice)
3/4 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of water

1. Butter a 8" baking pan and arrange the slice pear on the pan. Cook the sugar and water on high heat until it became light brown caramel.
2. Pour evenly over the pear slices and set aside.


Ingredients for the cake

6 tbsp of butter - room temperature
1/2 cup of sugar
2 large eggs
4 tbsp of sour cream
1/2 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups of flour
1/8 tsp of salt
1 tsp of baking powder


1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degree F. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at the time and continue to beat.
2. Add in lemon zest, sour cream and vanilla. Mix well. Sift flour, baking powder and salt and add into the batter. Mix until combined.
3. Pour the batter evenly over the pear and bake for 30-40 min or until cake tester comes out clean.
4. Cool the cake for 10 min before invert the cake onto a flat plate. Serve warm or at room temperature.


Note: If the Asian pear is large, you might only need 2. The one I used were pretty small.

17 comments:

Shereen said...

The cake look so moist and yummilicious. Beautiful even colour too. I seriously need to eat a piece of cake as I've got withdrawal symptom!!It has been more than a month since I've bake anything!

chow and chatter said...

what a lovely cake and got to love neighbors who give you fruit :)

The Sudden Cook said...

Looks great!I 've only tried pineapple upside down cake ...this recipe looks great

My Little Space said...

I enjoy eating Asian pears as it is so juicy & tender. I sometimes will use them to boil sweet soup by adding in red dates & rock sugar. Good for chilling off the heat. At the same time can enjoy more baked goods like this one here. slurppp....
Hope you're going to have a great week ahead.
Blessings
Kristy

Sarah said...

Loving this cake cos you don't need a whole lot of butter. Looks good and I bet it tastes great too.

Prema said...

Delicious cake,luks yum...

mycookinghut said...

Looks at those fresh Asian pears!! Yum.. you are so lucky to get as fresh as this. The cake looks yum!

Veronica said...

Love the soft and fluffy texture of your cake. Thanks for sharing.

Bakericious said...

I love upside down cake, looks good.

lyly said...

I love Asian Pear. Is it in season already? Your cake looks very moist and yummy. THank you for sharing.

Mich - Piece of Cake said...

This cake is very pretty, and has a beautiful golden colour. I have always wanted to do a pear upside down as I much prefer pears to apples... Will do that soon, thanks for the inspiration.

ICook4Fun said...

Shereen, I too dah lama tak bake cake so decided to bake this one as I have too many pears around. Go lah and bake something.

Rebecca, yes I am always lucky to have very good neighbors.

The Sudden Cook, thanks you. You should try baking with other fruits :)

Kristy, yes I too like Asian pears as they are juicier but Carlos prefer Barlet pear. I did used some to make the sweet soup. You too have a great weekend.

Sarah, yes not too much butter in it.

ICook4Fun said...

Premalatha, thank you.

Leemei, yes they are sweet and juicy too :)

Veronica, you are welcome.

Jess, thanks.

Lyly, Yes I saw plenty of it at the Asian store. The one from my backyard still very small. I think it still need a month or two to mature.

Mich, thank you. Hope you will try it out.

Susan said...

Tried the cake using Packam pears as I could not find the chinese pears and it was very well received by my family. Now I have some leftover sour cream and am wondering if you can help me out by suggesting something I can make with the cream. Thanks for the pear recipe.

ICook4Fun said...

Susan, glad that your family like the cake. You can add some sour cream to your cakes, use if for beef stroganoff, make dressing or into dips.

Katie said...

I just made the cake with Korean pears, as I live in Seoul. It turned out lovely! It's so delicious. Thanks for the recipe.

Carol said...

I have 2 trees loaded with asian pears,I make 3 or 4 of these lovely cakes and freeze them which makes them like a delicious sponge cake when thawed...I serve warm with a vanilla bean icecream...yum