Cardamom Pear Coffee Cake

A delicious cake that screams of fall and is pretty easy to make. The only thing that might make this recipe more complicated is if you choose to make homemade chunky pear sauce (recipe is at the end of this blog post). But even that is super easy, and honestly, well worth the effort!

Cardamom Pear Coffee Cake
for 1 8"x8" cake
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil (any unflavored oil should work well)
1 tsp salt
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1 1/2 cup unsweetened pear sauce

Topping:
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8"x8" pan. Mix all of the dry ingredients (NOT the ingredients for the topping, however) in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients, stirring to combine. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Pour into greased pan and spread evenly. Sprinkle the almonds over the top of the cake, then sprinkle the sugar over the top. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out dry and the topping is golden. Allow this to cool before cutting.
This cake is best enjoyed warm, with a big ol' cuppa black coffee. Awesome.

Pear Sauce:
This recipe is a great way to use up ripe pears if you find you have a sudden influx of them.
Peel and core several to several pounds of very ripe pears. Place in a sauce pan or deep pot with a dash of water (less water for few pears, up to a cup for several pounds of pears; just use as little water as you can without burning fruit to the bottom of your pan). Simmer over medium low until pears fall apart. Stir often. You can leave this sauce as chunky as you'd like. I like mine fairly chunky. It's great as a snack, or in the cake, above. Try it in oatmeal as a natural sweetener (this is what we do with our 2 year old!).