caramelized pear upside-down cake

ok, I'm little late on posting, I made this cake in the same week that I made cheesecake.

this one is one of my favorites. I tried apple before but caramelized pear something else,... yummy...
the recipe is from "sweet cakes" and here it is :

FOR THE TOPPING
2 medium pears
1 recipe of basic caramel ( I posted at the end)
2 oz ( 4 Tbs.) unsalted butter , cut into 4 pieces

FOR THE CAKE
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
   1/2 tsp. ground ginger
   1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
   1/4 tsp. salt
   1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
   1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs

heat up the oven to 350. and butter the bottom and sides of your pas. a round pan ( not use a spring-form pan) is recommended but I used square pas.

MAKE THE TOPPING
peel, core the pears lengthwise into slices. arrange the pear on the bottom of the pan in a circle around the edge (if you are not using a circle pan , just fill one row with pears and go to the next row). the pears overlap each other slightly. at the end the bottom of the pas should completely covered with pears.

make the basic caramel ( direction at the end). immediately remove the pan from the heat and whisk 4Tbs. of butter one by one till they are completely melted. pour the hot caramel over the pears. it should completly cover the pears and do not go on the bottom of the pan.

MAKE THE CAKE BATTER 
mix the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. in a smaller bowl mix the milk and vanilla together.
in another bowl,mix the butter with electric mixer till it is fluffy ( about 1 minute). in the medium speed , slowly add the brown sugar. increase the speed and mix for about 2-3 minutes. reduce the speed to medium again and add the eggs one by one.
reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture and milk mixture in five additions, starting and finishing by flour. do not over-mix.
spoon the cake batter on the top of  pears and smooth and even them. bake till the top is golden brown about 35-40 minutes.
transfer the pan to the rack and cool about 5-10 minutes.

BASIC CARAMEL:
 this will give you about 2/3 cup of caramel.
1 cup of sugar
1/4 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup cold water
 in a sauce pan stir sugar, lemon juice and cold water. bring to boil ( the side of the pan should be clean of any traces of sugar). it takes about 5-8 minutes that mixture starts to color around the edges. gently swirl the pan to even out the color. continue to cook till it turns medium amber. keep an eye on it because it changes color very fast. then remove it from the heat.

comments:
if some of the caramels leak to the bottom of the pan, when it is cooled , it will be hard to get the cake out. you could turn the pan upside down when it is rather hot or like me, you could put the pan on the steam for a couple of minutes and like this the cake will come off very easily.
this is a such delicious cake so bake it and enjoy!
Mania