I don't buy pears often, but when I heard the manager of our farmers market raving about some particularly delicious organic pears, I couldn't resist. I decided to use them in Melissa Clark's Pear Crumb Cake because I figured there was no way to go wrong with a sour cream cake + sweetened pears + cinnamon crumb topping.
The fruit in this cake is cooked briefly before adding it to the cake. You melt some butter with honey in a skillet; add sliced pears, lemon juice, lemon zest, nutmeg, and salt; cook the pears until tender; and let them cool. You make the cake using the reverse creaming method by putting all of the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt) into a mixing bowl; adding softened butter; and beating in eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. You pour the batter into a buttered and parchment-lined cake pan and then layer the pears on top, followed by the crumb topping (a mixture of flour, dark brown sugar, light brown sugar, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and melted butter).
When I checked my cake at the end of the baking time, I was confused and for a moment honestly thought I might be having some sort of cognitive episode where I had forgotten what I was baking. The cake looked like cake -- and by that I mean only cake, with no crumb topping. I've made plenty of cakes where the crumb topping melted as it baked and formed a single continuous layer, or at least lost all of its crumb-y character. But no matter what its condition or appearnce, the crumb topping has at least always stayed on top.
By contrast, when I pulled this crumb cake out of the oven, all I saw was smooth, golden brown cake crust. The crumb topping was just gone. I waited patiently for the cake to cool completely and when I cut it open I could see that the pears had sunk all the way to the bottom, along with the crumbs. Somehow the cake ended up on top. I'm still dumbfounded as to how this happened.
Nonetheless, the cake was good and I quite enjoyed it. The cake had a classic sour cream coffee cake flavor, and the generous amount of sweet pears had a lovely tender-but-not-mushy texture. The cinnamon crumb topping was buttery and delicious, but it did not have any crunch since it was buried in the middle of the cake. I love a crunchy topping, so it was a little disappointing not to have that textural contrast. But considering that my cake basically came out upside-down, I was pleased with the result!
Recipe: "Pear Crumb Cake" by Melissa Clark, from The New York Times.
Previous Posts:
- "The Caramel Is Tops, but What's on the Bottom?: Gingered Pear Upside-Down Cake," June 28, 2017.
- "A Lovely Cake with a Lovely Name to Match: La Fleur," April 23, 2015.
- "Got Pears to Spare: Pear Spice Cake," February 16, 2013.
- "You Get Out Exactly What You Put In: Pear and Dried Cherry Frangipane Cake," January 18, 2013.
- "Baked Sunday Mornings: Whiskey Pear Tart," September 23, 2012.
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