Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Ingredients for cake:
4 eggs
4 whole PEARS (I use bosque pears because they aren't as juicy) -- Should be about 3 cups once cut up
1 and 1/2 cups of fresh raspberries
2 cups of sugar
2 and 1/4 sticks of butter melted in saucepan (18 tablespoons)
3 cups of flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
a pinch of salt (or not)
Cut up the pears into chunks the size of half walnuts. While you are doing this, put the two and a quarter cubes of butter in a sauce pan on low heat until it is all melted. Set aside to cool down.
Beat the 4 eggs for 2 minutes with an electric beater on low.
Add the 2 cups sugar to the eggs and stir.
Pour in the melted butter (once it's cooled a bit). Add in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt). Beat again by hand or with mixer until you have a thick, smooth batter. With a spoon fold in the fresh fruit (pears and raspberries) and pour this into a GREASED BUNDT CAKE PAN. Really GREASE the Bundt pan. And lightly flour. But I mean it about the greasing. If you phone-in this part, you will regret it.
BAKE at 350 for ONE HOUR + PLUS, meaning at one hour, start checking. It might need another 5 to 12 minutes, depending on how much moisture was in the pears, the real temperature of the oven, etc. Test with a toothpick your trained (or untrained) eye.
Remove from oven. Okay, now how do you get the bundt cake out of the pan?
There are theories on this. Do NOT be afraid of your Bundt cake pan. It's your friend. I mean it. Even if half the cake sticks in there, you can scrap it out and stick it back together. But it's not going to stick because you are going to do two things.
One--Just before you take the pan out of the oven you are going to throw a dish towel in your sink and soak it with steamy HOT water. Then you are going to take the bundt pan from the oven and place the BUNDT pan down in the sink (pan down, cake looking up at you). While it's sitting there, quickly slip a butter knife around the edge of pan, and then around the center and sing the Happy Birthday song. This takes about 10-20 seconds. You could also not sing the song, and just wait 10-20 seconds.
Next, OVEN MITTS are on people, grab the bundt pan and INVERT it onto a cooling rack or a plate. I put it on plate. But some of you like these cooling racks. To each her/his own.
The Pear Raspberry Cake will fall right out of the pan. If it doesn't, well, not the end of the world. Get the stuck pieces out and put them back in place (remember, perfect is the enemy of the good. Voltaire said this first. Or at least gets credit. I say, pie is better than cake, but a bundt cake is better than a layer cake).
Then make the buttercream frosting:
ONE - 1 lb. box (which is approx. 3 3/4 cups) of Powered sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/4 cup of whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frost cake to your liking. Serve warm-ish. However, this cake is even better the next day. Go figure.
- Recipe courtesy of Holly Goldberg Sloan