Vegan pear upside down cake

This is a cake that I need to make again. In part this is because the cake was delicious and I would like to eat it again. In part, though, it is because my current photos do not do the cake justice. Poor winter lighting, hastily snapped images, and a camera battery that died at the wrong moment all contributed to sub-par photos. I apologise. However, I am sharing this anyway because the cake really was delicious and poor photos shouldn't get in the way of recipe sharing.

I made this for my mother's birthday. We did an early celebration before she and my Dad flew back to Australia and the cake doubled as a farewell cake. It is a thin cake and I almost called it a flan, but the texture is cakey even if the appearance is more flan-like. A smaller tin would give a thicker result but then you'd have a different ratio of pear topping to cake bottom. The current balance worked very well.

I mostly used tinned pears for this, but added some fresh slices from a pear that needed using up. I liked the contrast but would probably stick with tinned slices in the future. They turned caramel-like and lent a gorgeous sweetness to every mouthful.

I adapted my recipe from a pear upside down cake on Best Recipes. Their cake also looks flan-like and if you are serving a large group (more than 8) I recommend making two cakes.

Vegan pear upside down cake

A moist, fruit-topped, flan-like cake

Serves 8

Adapted from a pear upside down cake on Best Recipes

Print recipe

Ingredients

400g tinned pears in juice, drained (or 3 medium pears)

100g non-dairy spread

1 cup (lightly packed) brown sugar 

Egg replacer to the equivalent of 3 eggs (I used commercial egg replacer but chia eggs would work too)

1 1/3 cups self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground ginger

Method

Preheat your oven to 160'C (350'F) and line a cake pan with baking paper. One with removable sides would be ideal.

Slice the pear into slices that correspond to 1/8 of a pear (i.e., if your tinned pears are already halved, cut each half into 4). Arrange in a circular pattern over the bottom of the cake pan.

Beat together the non-dairy spread and brown sugar until creamy. Add the egg replacer and beat to incorporate. Stir in the flour, baking powder and ginger.

Spoon the batter over your pears and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool fully before transferring to a serving plate, serving with the pears on top.

Have you made any enjoyable cakes lately?

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