Here is my submission for October featuring baked goods. This came from a cookbook I received recently after hosting a Pampered Chef party (love that stuff!). It is from the Fall/Winter 2011 Season’s Best Cookbook.
It originally calls for use of a microwave but I’m going to include directions for the oven version.
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup, plus 1 tbsp veggie oil
- 1 29 oz can of pear halves
- 1 pkg spice cake mix (18.25 oz)
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup of molasses
- 1/2 cup of butterscotch or caramel sauce (I used ice cream topping)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a bundt cake pan with the 1 tbsp of oil. Drain the can of pears and blot dry with a paper towel. Slice 4 of the pear halves into sixteen pieces. Arrange pear slices in a circular pattern in the bottom of the bundt cake pan.
Place the remaining pears in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Scoop puree out into a one cup measuring cup. Fill with water to measure 1 cup. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine cake mix, ginger, pear mixture, eggs, molasses and remaining 1/3 cup of oil. Whisk until well blended. Slowly pour batter into pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool for 20-30 minutes. Invert onto plate and drizzle caramel or butterscotch sauce over top.
You’ll have to excuse the gray line at the bottom of the pictures. These were taken with a new cellphone camera and I’m not quite sure why this is only happening with WordPress. Regardless, the cake turned out very moist and tasty. I would, however, use only 1/4 cup of molasses in the recipe because I found the cake to be very much on the sweeter side. You are adding an additional sweet ingredient to an already sweetened cake mix.
Hope you enjoy this as much as we did.
https://akamonsoon.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/bake-quest-11-for-october/
Life In The Sonoran Desert 
I have got to bookmark this, I think it will be a winner when I have to work Xmas this year!
This would be perfect for Christmas!
I am so going to bake this cake! Thanks for sharing
I’m so glad you are going to try it. I do have the measurements in metrics, too if that makes it easier.
That looks fantastic. O.O
Thanks Alicia. I think my husband polished off the rest of it yesterday.
OMGosh!! Mmmm that sure is a really tempting… yummy looking cake!
A wonderfully delicious combination.
A perfect Fall snack.
Looks delicious! I wonder if you could make a glaze using a little cinnamon and ground cloves. Mixed up with some lemon juice and powdered sugar, it would add a spicy fall note to the cake. I might be trying this one!
That sounds wonderful. That would be an honor if you did try it Peter. 🙂 I hope if you do that you’ll post about it.
Looks marvelous! I’ll just need to get a bundt pan…
I bet you could probably use a regular cake pan if you didn’t have a bundt pan. The cooking time may differ but it would probably come out just as good.
That sounds divine for Fall. Ginger, pear and molasses is not a combo I would have considered. I would be using gluten free mix which is sometimes sweeter, so I might cut back somewhere else. Thanks for posting the oven version, I prefer it over the microwave.
Hi Emmy,
It was really a nice combination. I’m not much of a pear person but it did taste good altogether. Peaches could be substitued I suppose. I also prefer the over to the microwave. A few years ago I had a recipe for a cake you make in a coffee cup in the microwave. And that is exactly what it tasted like; microwaved cake. Yuck.
Sometimes in recipes I replace pear with green or yellow apples, it makes for an interesting change in flavors. LOL that microwave recipe sounds like something else! I learned on AT how to clean the microwave using vinegar that was heated up, it works like a dream and at least gets rid of the smell, but nuked food has serious taste limitations, from what I’ve seen.
Good idea! I could see the apples going well with this particular cake, too. Yet another tip on uses for vinegar. The microwave gets so dirty. We use ours to heat things up and if there is anything with any type of sauce on it, it really splatters all over the place. I’ll have to try that. Thanks for the tip!