Tastefully Overcaramelized

When you have apples and pears…..make an apple pear cake?

Ann says

A while ago Orangette posted an apple cake that looked delicious. And while I would have loved to have made it, I am lazy, and I made something up. It put the idea in my head though. Seriously, that lady posts delicious recipes.

So Abe and I were having a very relaxed weekend. We made some food, we ate some food. I visited my parents and my grandma. On Sunday night we ate leftovers and since I still had a little energy for cooking I used to rapidly aging apple and two pears in Abe’s fridge. I decided to melt the butter because it kind of gets like a fluffy shortbread with a sticky apple and pear topping. It was great while watching Serenity.

Abe says

Space zombie westerns really do go with delicious cake, although I imagine most things do. Ann’s recipe is wonderfully buttery, and in good fashion quietly blends the aromatic flavors of its namesake fruit throughout. It’s a science fact — I can’t get enough of this cake.

Unfortunately, we committed a glaring food blogger crime and inadvertently left our cameras elsewhere that evening, however the cake will retain its deliciousness for a couple days, which is about as long as this will last between breakfast, dessert, and seconds.

Apple Pear Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick butter plus 2 tablespoons for the apples and pears
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar plus 2 tablespoons for the fruit
three apples or three pears of some combination of the two (pears peeled and sliced in 1 centimeter thick slices; apples peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch slices)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

Cut a piece of parchment paper out to fit inside a 9 inch round cake pan. Lay the slices of pear and apple out over the parchment in concentric circles. Pour the 2 Tblsp butter over the apples and pears and then the 2 Tblsp sugar. Set aside.

Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside. In a saucepan melt the butter and allow the butter to cool slightly while you beat the eggs in another small bowl. With a whisk, beat the brown and white sugar into the melted butter until well incorporated. Some of the butter may still stay separated. Beat in the milk and then beat the eggs into the butter and sugar. Mix in the vanilla. Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff and quickly incorporate without over-mixing. Pour the batter evenly over the apples and smooth the top out. Bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Invert the cake onto a plate. Tada!