I Am Still Alive

Overview
• Makes: 1 cake
• Active time: 1/2 hour
• Total time: 2 hours

Ingredients
• 3 Asian pears
• 2 oranges
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup canola oil
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp all spice powder
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

Process

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.

2. Slice the pears. What you’re looking for are simple slices, just as you would slice an apple. However, pears have a smaller core than apples so you’re likely to get more yield from the fruit. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat the eggs until they’ve lost their orange color and have become a bit paler, about 1 min (Quickly whip together the egg and the yolk, with a fork, until lightly combined).

4. Add to the mix the juice of two oranges and the zest from one and whisk lightly.

5. Now add the flour, spice mix, baking powder, sugar, vanilla and salt and mix completely.

6. Once those ingredients are incorporated, slowly add the oil as you mix the batter. The result will be rather thick, & sticky.

7. (Heat butter and brush on). Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan. How? Grease the pan, then add about a tablespoon of flour to the pan’s base, then move and shake the pan until the flour has made a nice thin coat that covers the pan’s entire interior. Do this over the sink to save your self the mess. Dump out any excess flour.

8. Now begin to layer your cake. Take about a third of the batter mixture and lay down a nice coating on the bottom of the pan. This will actually be your top, so you want to make sure you’ve made a thick layer all the way around the base of the pan.

9. Lay pear slices on top of your batter layer. Add another layer of batter and another layer of pear slices. You should get between 2-3 layers of pears. The final layer should be batter.

10. Place your pan in the oven and bake for approximately 90 min. To check for doneness, insert a toothpick in the middle and remove it. It should come out clean when the cake is done.

11. Remove finished cake from the oven and leave it in its pan for at least 30 min. on a rack or other tray. Once sufficiently cool, you can turn it out onto a plate or simply leave it in its pan and cut slices from it. In either case, be sure to work slowly. The cake has a dense construction and those pears don’t help, so it will be more delicate then a Bundt cake.