My husband and I are both fighting off the flu. Neither of us expected to get sick this early in the season. But, we’re doing alright. Watching TV mostly and reminding each other of when our next dose of medicine is coming up. Whoever is at the hour and a half mark into medicine will make tea and refill our water glasses. We’ve got a great system. The poor guy has to go back to work in the morning though. I just hope he’s doing well enough to be able to get through the day.

Before I got sick and stopped getting dressed everyday, I made this yummy cake! It’s so moist that even though I didn’t properly store it for the past couple days, it’s still soft and delicious. It’s just been on the counter and I have a handy butter knife sitting next to it so I can just cut off a little nibble at a time to snack on. Not the best habit to have, but probably not the worst either.

Originally, I was going to write this up as non gluten free recipe, but when I was testing it, the gluten free version actually came out BETTER than the original! More moist and better structural integrity. Crazy! That’s never happened before.

Just a heads up, this recipe is for the cake, but I’m not giving instructions on how to make the caramel sauce or poached pears. That’s for another, less sick day.

The recipe is super easy, and as far as I can tell, you can’t really mess it up even if you try. So I recommend giving it a go! I also recommend snuggling up with a book, some hot chai tea, and a big slice. Perfect night.

Gluten Free Spiced Pear Cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (185g) gluten free flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/8 cups (225g) brown sugar
4oz unsalted butter
2 eggs
150 ml milk
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
2-3 pears
pinch of kosher salt

Optional toppings
Toasted, sliced almonds
Caramel sauce
Poached pears

Instructions

Preheat oven to 320°F and prepare a cake pan (I used an 8″ springform pan) with grease and a circle of parchment paper.

Peel and core pears, then cut into thin slices. They don’t have to be pretty or precise. Set aside.

Combine butter and milk in a small saucepan and heat on medium-low until all of the butter is melted and the edges begin to bubble. Set aside to cool.

With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and brown sugar together in a large bowl until light and creamy. Add the cooled butter and milk mixture and whisk until combined.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

Fold flour mixture into wet mixture until combined and there are minimal lumps.

Pour the cake batter into your prepared cake pan. Top the batter evenly with your pear slices, then press them down with a spoon so they are all about in the middle of the batter.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the center of the cake springs back when touched.

Cool for 15 minutes, and then top with caramel sauce, toasted, slices almonds, and poached pears!!

Let me know what you think of this!