Spiced Pear & Buttermilk Cake

It snowed, it snowed!! It is officially the holidays, truly feels festive, and we put up our Christmas tree! And I, as you can probably tell, am jumping for joy. In fact, the snow has stuck around for two whole days! It'll melt later this week. Finally, a real Colorado winter! 

I have the most marvelous memories of Colorado snowstorms... School canceled for a week, Christmas music playing non-stop, hot chocolate and jigsaw puzzles, baking treats and playing games, movies and popcorn and laughs... It was always best if Dad got to stay home from work too! A few times we had real no-kidding blizzards, and you couldn't see past the windows. Makes staying inside even cozier! In Colorado, a White Christmas is always a possibility!

Spiced Pear & Buttermilk Cake
Printable Recipe

1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground all-spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 medium-sized pear: half sliced into ¼-inch wedges, the other half diced small

coarse-grained sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat oven to 375⁰F degrees with racks in the middle. Line a 9 X 5 inch loaf pan with parchment paper.

Whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, spices, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, one at a time, beating well between each. Add half of the dry ingredients, alternate with all of the buttermilk and the other half of the dry ingredients. Mix slowly until just combined. Fold in the diced pears. Do not overmix!

Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Gently nudge in the pear slices diagonally into the top of the batter, leaving about half of the fruit sticking out. Sprinkle with the sugar. Bake for 40-60 minutes or until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for a few minutes, then remove from the pan and finish cooling on a wire rack.

I saw a recipe for this somewhere around the web, and changed nearly everything, except the idea and the pretty pears on top. It turned out delicious!!

Sweet, soft bits of pear scattered throughout, warm spices, a lightly sweet with a soft crumb...

If you like your cakes sweeter, add another 1/4 cup of sugar. I liked it less sweet, of course. Either way, it didn't last long around this house!