Pear Spice Cake

My parents have a pear tree in their back yard. It was crazy how many pears it could produce. And they would all get rip at the same time and we would just be inundated with pears, although it wasn't as bad as the persimmon tree at our old house, apparently. Mom would usually can a bunch of the pears, which was really tasty, but I think this recipe is a good alternative too.

It is pretty similar to banana bread so if you like banana bread you should definitely try it. It is way better though, so even if you don't like banana bread you should still try it. You cut the pears up pretty small but they don't get mashed up like the bananas and it has a pretty distinct pear flavor. It is really moist too, and not too sweet.

It takes a little longer because you let the pears sit in sugar for about an hour. This, through osmosis, draws the moisture out of the pear pieces to soften them and creates a sweet pear-flavored syrup. That way you get both pear pieces and the flavor to suffuse the whole cake. Science is delicious!

Pear Spice Cake

4 cups peeled, cored and chopped pears
2 cups white sugar
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
4 egg whites
2/3 cup canola oil
1 cup chopped pecans
1. Combine the pears and the sugar and let stand for one hour.
2.Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Spray a 10 inch bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray.
3.Slightly beat the egg whites and combine them with the oil, chopped pecans and pear mixture.
4. Stir the flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. Stir in the pear mixture. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan.
5. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Remove from oven ant let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing form pan.

Recipe from AllRecipes

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