Fresh Ginger and Pear Upside-down Cake

What do you do when things in life go round any other way then right-side-up? Creep away at home, freak out or just act like it's no one's business? Sounds legit. But hey I've got another tip to get your nerves back into a relaxed, calm mood, ready to face any future challenges to feel just unbeatable. What can that be you ask? Oh, it's damn simple: bake cake!





And no, not just ANY cake: an over the top flavour bursting Upside-down Cake, to match the theme of your current emotional rollacoaster!
It's not a simple combo of a plain butter cake with some caramelized fruit on top, oh nooo, it's a super-duper Fresh Ginger and Pear Upside-down Cake: ambivalent flavours, the sweet and the spicy, the soft and the crunchy. Just dive in it, bite per bite, take a deep breath and all problems shrink to the size of the last crumb left on your plate (or at least we can act out like they would do so ;-)).





Life's definitely crazy 'round here at the moment: I'm preparing for my final spurt in school, the exams for our German A levels are about three months away and by the end of June I'm hopefully all done with twelve years filled with studies, studies, studies but a whole lot of fun too :-). I'm not getting into detail any further cause then we'll probably still be sitting here tomorrow but it's just crazy, that within half a year (which means 23 weeks -161 days - 3.864 hours -  231.840 minutes or 13.910.400 seconds - my maths crazy brain can turn it in any way possible, the number won't change...) I should all be grown up, organizing my life and working on my own future :-O.





Where are all those days when I was playing hour after hour, wondering why the days 'til my birthday or christmas have to pass by so slowly? Oh, yaaa I remember - I wished to be all grown up in those times - why didn't anyone told me that time flies by THIS fast? Hm.. okay, in fact they did, but did I believe them? Ha! No, all rumors - oh pity, childish-me.



Haha, okay I hope you don't get me wrong: I'm actually suuuper excited to see what challenges life has got in its backpack for me this year: where will I be in 6, 9 or 12 months? Au-pair, student at university, working or travelling around the globe in desperate hope to find my place to-be?





We'll see, we'll see - until then I think I will just stay in the comfort of my beloved familiar home and keep eating this cake. I know it might sound too metaphoric once again, but lets pretend that its just a little like my current state of life: a comfy, known base of cinnamon and cardamom, suprising spicy turns of fresh ginger and the icing on the cake in form of caramellized sweet pears in frequent intervals. Enough said - now go and whip up some delicious nerve-calming cake and don't be too confused about my crazy monologues ;-).

Fresh Ginger and Pear Upside-down Cake
- yields one 9inch sized cake
- 2 medium sized Pears (~250g)
- 3 Tbsp Butter
- 4 Tbsp Brown Sugar
- 70g fresh Ginger
- 100g Molasses
- 50g Sugar
- 1 Egg, seperated
- 120g Applesauce
- 100g Yogurt
- 75 ml Milk
- 240 g Whole Wheat or Spelt flour
- 1 Tbsp Cinnamon
- 1 and 1/2 tsp Cardamom
- 2 Tbsp Lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp Baking Powder

1. Preheat your oven to 175 °C. Wash and core the pears. Now you can either cut them into thin slices lengthwise or into freestyle cubes.
2. Line the bottom of your cake pan (don't use a springform pan as the liquid might find it's way to the outside!) with parchment paper. Melt two tablespoons of the butter and spread on top of the paper. Grease the sides of the pan with the remaining butter, then sprinkle the sugar on the bottom. Layer the sliced pears on top.
3. Peel and grate the fresh ginger into a medium sized bowl. Then add in the molasses, sugar, egg yolk, applesauce, yogurt and milk - mix until well incorporated. Combine the flour with the baking powder and the spices and add it to the batter together with the lemon juice. In a seperate bowl beat the egg white until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold it into the batter.
4. Spread the batter on top of the prepared pears and bake the cake in the oven for 40-60 minutes until a cake tester inserted comes out mostly clean (a little caramel from the bottom is okay). Let it sit on the countertop until the pears stop bubbling. Run a knife around the edge of the pan, then carefully turn it out onto a plate. Cake is best served warm or at room temperature with some optional whipped cream. Enjoy!