Small-Batch Pear-Walnut Upside-Down Cake
By Annie PetitoPublished on December 4, 2023
Time
1¾ hours, plus 1½ hours cooling
Yield
Serves 4
Ingredients
Topping
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted¼ cup packed (1¾ ounces/50 grams) dark brown sugar 1 teaspoon cornstarch Pinch table salt 1 large ripe but firm Bosc pear (8 ounces)Cake
½ cup walnuts, toasted¼ cup (1¼ ounces/35 grams) all-purpose flour ¼ teaspoon table salt ⅛ teaspoon baking powder Pinch baking soda ½ cup (3½ ounces/99 grams) granulated sugar 1 large egg 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted2 tablespoons vegetable oilBefore You Begin
We strongly recommend weighing your ingredients where a weight is indicated and baking this cake in a light-colored cake pan with sides that are at least 2 inches tall. Serve with crème fraîche or lightly sweetened whipped cream.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 6-inch round cake pan and line bottom with parchment paper. Pour melted butter over bottom of pan and swirl to evenly coat. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in small bowl and sprinkle evenly over melted butter.
- Peel, halve, and core pear. Cut pear halves into 3 wedges each. Arrange pears, tapered ends pointing inward, in staggered horizontal lines in cake pan.
- Process walnuts, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in food processor until walnuts are finely ground, about 20 seconds. Transfer walnut mixture to bowl.
- Process sugar and egg in now-empty processor until very pale yellow, about 2 minutes. With processor running, add melted butter and oil in steady stream until incorporated. Add walnut mixture and pulse to combine, 4 to 5 pulses. Pour batter evenly over pears (some pear may show through; cake will bake up over fruit).
- Bake until center of cake is set and bounces back when gently pressed and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 50 minutes to 1 hour, rotating pan halfway through baking. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Carefully run paring knife or offset spatula around sides of pan. Invert cake onto wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet; discard parchment. Let cake cool for about 1½ hours. Transfer to serving platter, cut into wedges, and serve.
for the topping
for the cake
Time
1¾ hours, plus 1½ hours coolingYield
Serves 4Ingredients
Topping
Cake
Ingredients
Topping
Cake
Ingredients
Topping
Cake
Why This Recipe Works
Bosc pears are a natural for baking, since their dense flesh holds their shape after baking. Instead of the yellow cake typically featured in this style of dessert, we made a walnut-based cake, which was light but sturdy, earthy-tasting and less sweet, and visually attractive. Lining the cake pan (a light-colored pan helps the cake cook more evenly) with parchment and removing the cake from the pan after cooling for 15 minutes—good practice for any upside-down cake—allowed the top to set while preventing the bottom of the cake from steaming and turning soggy. Reducing the serving size of the original dessert was mostly a matter of halving all the ingredients with the exception of the eggs: Since the cake is so moist, one egg instead of three sufficed. Moving from a 9-inch cake pan to a 6-inch pan meant arranging the pear wedges in staggered horizontal lines instead of in a spiral, which the smaller pan couldn't accommodate. Finally, we reduced the baking time by 20 minutes.
Before You Begin
We strongly recommend weighing your ingredients where a weight is indicated and baking this cake in a light-colored cake pan with sides that are at least 2 inches tall. Serve with crème fraîche or lightly sweetened whipped cream.
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Grease 6-inch round cake pan and line bottom with parchment paper. Pour melted butter over bottom of pan and swirl to evenly coat. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in small bowl and sprinkle evenly over melted butter.
- Peel, halve, and core pear. Cut pear halves into 3 wedges each. Arrange pears, tapered ends pointing inward, in staggered horizontal lines in cake pan.
- Process walnuts, flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in food processor until walnuts are finely ground, about 20 seconds. Transfer walnut mixture to bowl.
- Process sugar and egg in now-empty processor until very pale yellow, about 2 minutes. With processor running, add melted butter and oil in steady stream until incorporated. Add walnut mixture and pulse to combine, 4 to 5 pulses. Pour batter evenly over pears (some pear may show through; cake will bake up over fruit).
- Bake until center of cake is set and bounces back when gently pressed and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 50 minutes to 1 hour, rotating pan halfway through baking. Let cake cool in pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Carefully run paring knife or offset spatula around sides of pan. Invert cake onto wire rack set in rimmed baking sheet; discard parchment. Let cake cool for about 1½ hours. Transfer to serving platter, cut into wedges, and serve.
for the topping
for the cake
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