Pear and Ginger Cake

Based on Penny Stephens What's Cooking Italian .

The taste is subtle. If you want to moderate the ginger, use 2 teaspoons. Pears are not a prominent flavor in this recipe. You may want to try adding vanilla or even orange extract. 

14 tablespoons Cup sweet butter softened

7/8 Cup white sugar

¾ Cup  flour

2 Teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

2~3 Teaspoons grated ginger

3 eggs, room temperature

3 pears, peeled, cored and sliced

1 heaping tablespoon brown sugar

Grease and line the base of a springform cake tin with buttered parchment. (If you like, line the sides of the pan with parchement as well. The cake shrinks when done so the side parchment is really not necessary.) Preheat the oven to 325 F*.
Cream together 12 Tablespoon of the butter with the white sugar on low speed. Wisk in eggs, one at a time. Sift baking powder and flour together. Add flour mixture, and ginger.Whisk mixture 2 minutes to a smooth consistency. Add a pinch of salt.
Sprinkle well buttered bottom parchment paper with brown sugar. Cover the bottom surface with uniformly thin pear slices. Use all of them; it does not matter if they are overlapping. Dot with butter.
Pour the mixture into the cake tin, making sure it is roughly level. Put a wrap of tin foil on the bottom of the springform to prevent butter leak from the topping.

Bake in a preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

This cake is delicious served warm with cream or vanilla ice cream. Best eaten within a day or two of baking.

Notes:

1.       The baking temperature varies with the depth of the pan. Changing the pan size alters both the baking temperature and time. Larger, more shallow pans need increased heat; smaller, deeper pans need decreased heat. The size of a baking pan or dish is measured across the top of the container from the inside edge to inside edge. The depth also is measured on the inside of the pan or dish from the bottom to the top of the rim.