Spiced Apple & Pear Upside Down Cake

I’m back in the kitchen just in time for my favorite season of baking… FALL<3! You may have wondered where I’ve been?! Well, in early August I travelled to the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica to become a certified Yoga Instructor, and I just returned a few days ago. It was an absolutely incredible journey that forever transformed my life in ways that I cannot describe. I expanded my soul family, learned so much about myself and Yoga, got to be submerged in a beautiful surrounding, and was nourished daily with comforting food AND fabulous desserts!

My Yoga Teacher Training was held at Blue Osa. The food at Blue Osa was definitely one of the highlights! They have very knowledgeable and experienced chefs cooking with love to share with their guests every single day. Feeling that love through each meal really resonated with me as that is what I love to do for others through my baking. We had many delicious desserts with fresh mangos, pineapples and starfruit to name a few. I highly recommend checking out the “Food” section on their site btw – they have excellent video content and recipes for great ways to mix it up at home with Costa Rican, French, Thai recipes and more!

One of my favorite desserts was the pineapple upside down cake. When I got home to Chicago a few nights ago, the air was crisp, cool and fresh… fall had arrived to my very pleasant surprise. My head instantly started spinning with all of the things I wanted to bake. I felt a lot of inspiration from my trip, so I wanted to put a spin on the pineapple upside down cake by translating it into a perfect little celebration for the start of fall with apples, pears, and fall spices. I’m super excited to send this off to some of my dearest friends this week as a way for me to show how much I missed them. ❤

Ingredients:

14 tbs unsalted butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3 apples, peeled and cut into wedges
3 pears, peeled and cut into wedges
1 cup pure cane sugar
2 large eggs, 1 large egg yolk
1 2/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp ground pumpkin spice
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350.
Melt 4 tbs of butter into a cast iron skillet over low-medium heat, then add in the light brown sugar, staring until mixture is smooth (about 3 minutes).
Add ground pumpkin spice into the mixture and stir until combined.
Remove from the heat and add your apples and pears overtop the mixture in a design of your choice. Dust a bit more pumpkin spice over top the fruit then set aside.
Mix remaining butter and pure cane sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs 1 at a time.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and slowly mix until combined, then add some of the buttermilk. Add the remaining dry ingredients, followed by the buttermilk and mix until just combined.
Pour the batter overtop of the fruit in the skillet, smoothing it evenly throughout.
Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown and the top of the cake springs when you press it gently with your fingertip.
Cool the cake in the skillet for at least 15 minutes, then, using two oven mitts, place a serving dish upside down and overtop the skillet. Slowly flip the skillet over, allowing the cake to gently fall onto the serving platter. Serve warm right away or later at room temperature – a little ice cream overtop wouldn’t hurt either! 😉

Thank you for reading. ❤ I’m happy to be back and looking forward to catching up on all the lovely cooking and baking adventures my little blogging family has been up to!

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