One of the best: pear cake

I believe it was Annalena's second blog, where she wrote about pear cake, and the old tradition in Vermont of making a pear cake for your intended beau, if you were a single woman.

I like that tradition. I think that cooking for someone whom you wish to bed down is much underrated as an activity. Why spend money on clothes that really do not fit that you won't wear again where, ultimately, if all else goes wrong, you have a good dinner or a good dessert out of the situation? Hmmm?

Oh, dear, digressing again. Let' return to the topic of pear cake. As the readers know, Annalena is not shy about turning her cooking skills to changing ingredients, and she is not shy about "slumming" as some would have it, for recipes. Both activities come into play here.

Annalena's favorite source for spices is Penzey's. I commend them to you. They had a store not far from where Annalena's alter ego works, but it closed last week. Now, as Annalena waits for their reopening, hopefully at a convenient site, she has their catalog, which always features recipes. There was a recipe in the newest one for an apple cake.

Annalena is always in the mood for a good apple cake, especially one that makes a large amount, with minimal effort, so that she can share with others. Penzey's recipes are good in both respects: they have large yields, and are easy: VERY easy. And this cake thus caught Annalena's eye.

EXCEPT: she had a quantity of very ripe pears on hand. Well... if it didn't work.

It worked. It worked beautifully. And... it uses oil instead of butter.

Quick review here: when a cake uses oil as its fat instead of butter, what does it mean?

I'm smiling. I knew you all remembered. Good for you. Have two pieces of this cake, and say that the oil makes it healthy.

This cake takes a while to make, but making it is absurdly easy. You need a big pan, like a bundt pan, or something along those lines, but that is the only thing you'll have to look for. Oh, and cinnamon sugar. If you don't have cinnamon sugar, make it. Mix a quarter cup of sugar with a teaspoon of good cinnamon. Done

You will need 4 cups of flour, and 2 cups of sugar. Mix these together, and add a tablespoon and a teaspoon of baking powder, and a pinch of salt. All in a mixing bowl. Separately, combine a cup of vegetable oil, 3/4 cup of orange juice (squeeze it yourself), and 4 eggs. Pour that into the flour mixture, and then using the paddle, stir the stuff together until it's just combined.

Grease your baking pan REALLY well. Make sure you get that center portion, which everyone always forgets. Pour in half the batter.

Be careful here. Many people think "half the batter" means "fill half the pan." NOPE. And since most of these pans are not evenly shaped, the volume will differ. You can eyeball, but please keep that in mind.

Now, slice up pears. I don't peel them, peel them if you want, and cover the batter with them. Now sprinkle half that cinnamon sugar on them, and pour in the rest of the batter. Add another layer of pears, and more sugar. Get this into the oven and bake at 350 for 90 minutes.

Not a lot of work there, was it? For the first half hour you will swear you did something wrong. You didn't. After the second half hour, you will begin to worry that the cake will overflow the pan. It won't. And the smell of cinnamon will take over your house (you know, of course, that realtors recommend that you bake something with cinnamon if you're showing your house to someone who's interested in buying it, don't you?).

You want to let this cake sit for about thirty minutes, and then unmold it while it is still warm. There's so much fruit juice and sugar in the cake that, if you let it cool completely, you will never get it out. Trust me on this.

You have a delicious cake here, suitable for company dessert, for coffee, for impressing someone you want to bed down... Just don't feed your intended too much of it. SLows em down...