Upside-Down Pear Cake

My goodness, it feels like summer has just slipped away. I don't know about the weather in your area, but the temperatures have dropped to the point that I wore a scarf yesterday. A scarf!

I hope you're not all sick of my New York City trip posts. I haven't even finished posting all of the wonderful things we saw and ate! To be continued after Labour Day...

To usher in the chill of autumn, how about an upside-down pear cake? It has that nice rustic feel to it and tastes wonderfully sweet as you reminisce about the summer of 2010.

Upside-Down Pear Cake
(Makes about 1 8x8 square cake)

4-5 pears (depends on how thick/thin you slice it)
1 1/4 stick of unsalted butter
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 cup of sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 cup of yogurt

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and have all ingredients at room temperature. Also have your cake pan ready.
2. Peel and slice your pears. Cut them in a way so that the pear shape remains intact. We like our pears and made them pretty thick.
   
3. Place the cut pears in a sieve to drain any juices.
4. Using an electric mixer, beat 2 tablespoons of butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Take the mixture out and using a spoon, create an even base on your cake pan. Set aside.
5. Take the remaining butter and beat with the 1/4 cup of sugar until light and fluffy.
6. Add in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the vanilla extract.
   
7. Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.
8. Alternatively add in the dry mixture with the yogurt. Mix until combined.
   
9. Place your pear slices on top of the brown sugar and butter mixture in the pan. Nicely space the pears. Then, pour in the cake batter.
   
   
   
10. Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Take the cake out and let it cool upside down. The cake pan should come off easily because of the delicious caramel pears. Set the cake aside and watch the sweet juices dribble through the cake. Quickly eat and savour.

Enjoy! Autumn doesn't officially arrive until September 23rd!

Pear Excellence 2009

Pear Excellence is a competition organized by the Pear Bureau Northwest:

"[They] scoured the nation's culinary schools in search of students whose fresh pear recipes tantalized its taste buds, and five regional semi-finalists were selected to compete for a grand prize of $2,500 on May 5th at The Chef's House in Toronto!"

Today, we were invited as "foodies" to attend the final judging event of Pear Excellence: The 2009 Canadian Culinary Student Competition at The Chef's House. However, Howard was called for jury duty, so I brought along a friend from work to go with me. It was a good thing that my friend likes pears! There was pear punch, pear centerpieces, pear gift bags, and we sampled the competing pear dishes. I accidently grabbed the wrong camera today on my way out, so I'm very sorry for the fuzzy photos!

Above: Table for us!

Each student presented their recipe to a panel of judges: Rita DeMontis (Food and Lifestyle Editor, Toronto Sun), John Higgins (Director, George Brown University), Peter Dewar (Faculty, Nova Scotia Culinary College), and Sal Battaglia (Fresh First Produce & President, Ontario Produce Marketing Association). The judges would then provide comments to the students. After all five dishes were tasted, the judges tallied up the marks. *Drum Roll*

Above: Table for the panel of judges.

Congratulations to Rose Prost-Hiebert! Her pear ginger cheesecake recipe won her the grand prize! She also won the People's Choice Award - voted by us guests! Her cheesecake was so delicious that I can't wait to try making it myself!

Grand Prize: Pear Ginger Cheesecake
Ontario: Rose Prost-Hiebert, Elliott House Restaurant and Chef School

Finalist: Perfectly “Peared" Pizza
Prairies: Juli McCue, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology

Finalist: Candied Pear Balls
Maritimes: Tara Fleet, New Brunswick Community College

Finalist: Pear and Sausage Risotto
Quebec: Michael Tozzi, College LaSalle

Jeremy Webber of Culinary Institute of Vancouver Island, VIU entered his Grilled Pear and Ginger Soufflé with Brandied Pear Chips. We don't have a photo of Jeremy's pear creation, his soufflé was only served to the judges.

Above left: We were given gift bags on the way out. Everyone received a pear, a magnet, a pen, and a pear plush toy.
Above right: Recipes and ideas about pears were also included. You can find lots of pear recipes on the USA Pear website as well.

Above left: Here is the pear packaged in a "reusable pear packer!" How interesting!
Above right: I did use their Check the Neck for Ripeness™ technique, I think it was ripe, so I ate it! This pear smelled and tasted like the pears grown in our backyard, but it had a different texture that I've never tried before!

Thank you to Cristie Mather from Pear Bureau Northwest for the invitation! We had a fun time and all the recipes were wonderful! Congratulations to all the finalists!

Pear and Roxy are now good friends. For the winning recipes, please visit USA Pears here.