Chocolate Pear Upside Down Cake

Pineapple upside down cake has always been one of my mom's go-to cakes. As a kid, I always got the job of arranging the pineapple chunks in a fancy pattern, while sneaking tastes of the butter and brown sugar caramel. We got a huge bag of bag of Bartlett pears in our CSA share this week, and I wanted to try this variation on a much loved recipe. I removed all of the dairy, and next time will try it with an egg substitute.

Chocolate Pear Upside Down Cakeone 9" cake

3 medium pears, peeled and sliced
1 Tbsp earth balance
2 Tbsp water
1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup earth balance
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
big pinch sea salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the earth balance, water and sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to caramelize. Pour it into a buttered 9" spring form pan and arrange the pear slices however you please.

Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl.  Melt the earth balance and chocolate chips over a double boiler. Take off the heat, and whisk in the sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and stir in the vanilla.  Stir in the flour mixture, alternating with the soy milk, starting and ending with the flour.

Pour the batter over the pears and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool on a rack for as long as you can wait before flipping the cake over, but this cake is unbelievable when it's still warm. So don't resist temptation for too long.