Sunsets with a sliver of Pear Spice Cake.

Good news to my fellow bakers, the cake was a hit! After work, I took the pup with me to Cedarville to meet Eugene after his team’s basketball practice. 

{And just because I don’t put many self-portraits in my blog…here’s me & the pup waiting patiently outside the gym for practice to end.}

The hubs & I had about an hour to kill between his practice and my devotions with the team, so we took Espn for a walk around campus.

I said it yesterday, but it’s worth praising again – the colors of the leaves right now are amazing. For some reason, when I see a changing tree on my walks, it makes me stop moving, take a big deep-in-your-gut breath in, slowly breathe out, and smile. Bright, bold, God-gifted beauty.

 

It was perfect timing for a walk…just as the sun was beginning to set {thanks, God!}

   

And, in keeping with the theme of praising, my devotions with Eugene’s basketball girls went well – we talked about contentment & rest and devoured the Pear Spice Cake I brought them. While they tested out my cake, I heard a lot of interesting comments… “Yum”, “It’s so moist”, “I hate the word moist”, “Mm, the pears & nuts are great in this”, “is there pumpkin in it?” {answer’s no}, & “this is so good!”

Granted, the girls are used to nasty college cafeteria food, so take their praises with a grain of salt, but I was able to snatch a small sliver that was left of the cake after our meeting and, yep, I think it’s good enough to post the recipe for future keeping.
So without further ado…

Pumpkin Spice Cake

{this recipe is very roughly adapted from Joy the Baker’s recipe…but I didn’t use the same ingredients or follow her steps at all – oops.}
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1  cups buttermilk {I didn’t have buttermilk, so I used milk & lemon juice}
3 pears, peeled, cored and diced into roughly 1/2-inch pieces (about 1 to 1 1/4 cups of fruit)
1 cup walnuts (3 ounces)
Confectioner’s sugar {optional}

First, preheat your oven to 350 degrees & spray your Bundt pan well so your cake doesn’t stick {mine stuck slightly…you may want to butter the pan and dust it with flour instead.}
Next, if you don’t have buttermilk, the substitute is a little less than 1 cup of milk and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar. It’s supposed to rest for about 5 minutes before you use it.

Then you want to combine your whole-wheat flour,  all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Stir it with a fork to make sure it’s all mixed well.

In your separate mixing bowl, add the butter, applesauce, vanilla, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.

Beat this on medium with an electric mixer for a few minutes until it looks fluffy. {My butter was still slightly frozen, so it was a challenge, but it worked out fine…not as fluffy as it was supposed to look, but who cares!} Then you want to add your eggs and beat well again.

Reduce speed to low, then add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately in batches, mixing well after each addition. 

Next you’ll want to peel & dice your fresh pears.

Fold in pear pieces and chopped walnuts. {I only had a handful of walnuts, but it was plenty. The nuts make the cake, so if you’re thinking about omitting them, I suggest you think again!}

Spoon batter into your Bundt pan, smooth the top, and bake 40 to 50 minutes {or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.}   

Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for about 10 minutes, flip it onto your cooling rack and cool completely…or as long as you can resist taking a bite. {See, I told you part of my cake stuck to the pan. Bummer. Once I sliced it, no one could tell the difference.}

You can either make the praline walnut topping for the cake that’s in Joy the Baker’s recipe, or if you’re like me and in a rush, just sprinkle a little confectioner’s sugar on top & enjoy

It was a really moist, cake full of a nice balance of spices and just a hint of the pear taste. Very nice combo!

I think it’d be especially good with a cup of hot black tea. :)

Recipe linked on: