• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Bojon Gourmet logo

  • Recipes
  • About
    • In the Press
    • Learn with Me
    • Work With Me
    • Portfolio
  • Cookbook
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • About
  • Cookbook
  • In the Press
  • Learn with Me
  • Work With Me
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • ×

    Home / Recipes / Desserts

    Cranberry-Pear Upside-Down Gingerbread

    Published Dec 23, 2010

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    slice of delicious cranberry upside down gingerbread
    Being a Jew (even a bad one) in December in the U.S. can prove trying. I don't mind the trees, wreaths and boughs (they smell great!), the perpetual Christmas music playing everywhere (well, so long as it's Bing or Ella), or the plethora of baking magazines stocking the racks at every grocery store in town (bring them on!). What bothers me is the assumption that everybody celebrates Christmas.

    pears and cranberries on a board
    During Chanukah this year, the nice Peruvian delivery man from one of our vendors at work wished me a Feliz Navidad. I smiled and wished him a Happy Chanukah back.

    'Que?'
    'Happy Chanukah.'
    'No comprendo.'
    'Chanukah.' I tried pronouncing it with a Latin American accent. 'HA-noo-kah.'
    'Oh, you mean año nuevo.'
    'No I don't mean año nuevo, I mean Chanukah. The Jewish... version of Christmas.'
    Polite smile.
    'You know, Jewish people? Jews?'

    cranberries cooking
    Despite being Jew Crew, I'm down with Christmas just like I'm down with Jesus: he seems like he was a cool guy, and if Christmas tricks people into baking a lot and celebrating trees, then I can get behind it. That lots of yummy foods (and drinkles) are associated with the birth of Jesus doesn't make me want to eat (or drink) them any less. Any Scroogy tendencies I may have are in no way aimed at the culinary side of Christmas. Cookies, spice cakes, peppermint bark - the more the merrier. Ho, ho hos.

    sliced pears and cranberries
    I'm unclear as to whether my recent hankering for gingerbread has anything to do with the impending holiday, or if it's just the cold making me want to eat everything in sight, bear-like, in preparation for a long winter. Either way, warming spices and pears seem to fit the bill perfectly this time of year.

    sliced pears in a pan
    Inspired by a recipe in Mani Niall's book Sweet!, I decided to add cranberries to the mix, as I didn't get enough of them yet this year, and bake this cranberry pear upside-down gingerbread.

    bowl and spatula
    After a bit of analysis paralysis spent researching dozens of recipes, I finally threw caution to the wind and made one up. I melted butter, brown sugar and salt together in a 9" round pan, arranged the cranberries and pears over the top, then whisked up a batter of more melted butter, blackstrap molasses, white sugar, fresh and dried ginger, cinnamon, black pepper (as well as the usual cakey ingredients), and baked it up. I liked the balance of flavors - spicy, sweet, bitter, tart - but the gingerbread part hardly rose at all and had a dense, dry mouthfeel. I swapped out sunflower oil for the butter and upped the leavening for the second trial.

    side of cranberry gingerbread cake
    Crossing my fingers, I turned the finished cake out onto a platter. The glowing red cranberries glistened prettily as the toffee-flavored sauce oozed down the sides. I cut a wedge of cake and the pear slices revealed themselves, tucked between the cake and the berries. A dollop of whipped cream tempered the heat of the ginger and mellowed the deep molasses flavor.

    bowl of whipped cream
    Fresh from the oven, the cake is springy and tender; as it sits, it absorbs the juices from the baked fruit, becoming more moist and gooey, similar in texture to a steamed pudding. The tang of the berries plays off the mild pears and the deep, dark, spicy cake. The high ratio of fruit to cake should assuage any guilt you may feel regarding indulgence. Hey, it's the holidays!

    gingerbread cake
    Whatever your celebratory persuasion - Christmas, Chanukah or Ursidae - this cake makes a satisfying dessert after any meal, be it a roast ham, a bowl of Chinese take-out, or an unsuspecting salmon.

    slice of gingerbread cake on a plate
    Happy Holidays!

    For more pear recipes:

    • Baked Pancake with Pear and Cardamom
    • Gluten-Free Pear Custard Tart + Mulled Wine Poached Pears
    • Gluten Free Pear Crisp with Blackberries & Ginger
    • Pear, Blue Cheese and Hazelnut Tart

    *Bojon appétit! For more Bojon Gourmet in your life, follow along on Instagram,  Facebook, or Pinterest, purchase my gluten-free cookbook Alternative Baker, or subscribe to receive new posts via email. And if you make this upside-down gingerbread recipe, I’d love to know. Leave a comment and rating below, and tag your Instagram snaps @The_Bojon_Gourmet  and  #bojongourmet.*

    5 from 1 vote

    Cranberry Pear Upside-Down Gingerbread

    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    This upside down cake is packed full of winter flavors.
    Alanna Taylor-Tobin
    Prep Time: 30 minutes
    Cook Time: 1 hour
    Total: 1 hour 30 minutes
    Servings: 8 servings

    Ingredients

    The topping:

    • 1/2 stick unsalted butter, in 6 pieces (4 tablespoons)
    • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 8 ounces whole fresh or frozen cranberries (about 2 cups)
    • 2 large, ripe, buttery pears (such at Bartletts), peeled, cut off the core, sliced lengthwise 1/4" or thinner

    The cake:

    • 1/4 cup vegetable oil (such as sunflower)
    • 2 tablespoons peeled and finely grated fresh ginger (I like to use a microplane) (1 ounce)
    • 1/2 cup sugar
    • 1/4 cup unsulphured, blackstrap or dark molasses
    • 1 large egg
    • 1/2 cup milk
    • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour
    • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 3/4 teaspoon powdered ginger
    • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
    • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
    • lightly sweetened whipped cream or creme fraiche, for serving

    Instructions

    • Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350º.
    • Grease the sides of a 9" round cake pan with a bit of the butter, then place the rest of the butter pieces in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the brown sugar and the salt evenly over the butter, and place in the oven until melted and bubbly, about 10 minutes. Dump in the cranberries (they should almost completely cover the bottom), then carefully arrange the pears over the cranberries. Set aside while you make the batter.
    • In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, grated ginger, sugar, molasses and egg to combine. Whisk in the milk. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, powdered ginger, cinnamon and pepper. Whisk the flour mixture into the oil mixture until smooth. The batter will be runny. Pour the batter over the pears.
    • Bake the cake until it begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 - 45 minutes (some readers reported baking this for 60 minutes or longer, so give it as long as it needs!) rotating the cake halfway through baking. Run a thin knife or small, offset spatula around the perimeter of the cake to loosen it. Invert a large plate over the cake. Wearing oven mitts, grasp both the plate and the cake pan and flip them over. Carefully lift the pan off. If some cake has stuck to the pan, you can scrape it off and spackle it back on (or just eat it - it IS the best part, and none will be the wiser).
    • Serve the cake warm or at room temperature, with a dollop of whipped cream or crème fraîche. The cake is best the day it is made, but you can store it in an airtight container at room temp for up to one day, or in the fridge for several days.

    Notes

    Be sure to use ripe pears for this cake. They should smell fragrant and have a hint of give when pressed.
    Nutritional values are based on one of eight servings.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 355kcalCarbohydrates: 57gProtein: 3gFat: 13gSaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 37mgSodium: 345mgPotassium: 312mgFiber: 3gSugar: 40gVitamin A: 260IUVitamin C: 5.7mgCalcium: 69mgIron: 1.6mg
    Making this? I'd love to see!Tag your snaps @The_Bojon_Gourmet and #bojongourmet!

    slice of cranberry gingerbread

    You might also like...

    « Nibby Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies (GF option)
    Cardamom Snickerdoodles »

    Get new recipes by email

    Please wait...

    Thanks for subscribing!

    the cover of the award-winning cookbook, Alternative Baker

    Hungry for more?

    Alternative Baker celebrates the unique tastes and textures of 14 gluten-free flours, from buckwheat flour to almond flour to sorghum and coconut! This cookbook will fill your kitchen with sweet treats that burst with flavor every month of the year.

    Learn more and find out where to buy →

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Lucia says

      December 23, 2010 at 1:32 pm

      Um... ya bringing that over to Paxton's Pauper's Xmas Eve? My mouth is salivating.

      Reply
    2. Jessa says

      December 24, 2010 at 12:12 am

      Yum!

      I, too, made up a spice cake batter for a pear upside-down skillet cake recently. Was delicious, and quite similar to yours. Alas, mine had no cranberries. Boo.

      I *did* just get gifted some gorgeous pears that need to be used soon...maybe I'll make this tonight!!

      Reply
    3. Stan says

      January 08, 2012 at 4:00 pm

      This was the absolute winner for holiday baking this year. We ended up with a smaller format (my having erroneously used a 9" pie plate instead of cake pan) and had to adjust proportions on the fly, but we still polished it off not long after it made it out of the oven. It had a wonderful balance between the sweet, spice, and the tartness of the cranberries.

      I wonder if a variation with fresh apples instead of the pears would work once they come back in the Fall? We shall have to see....

      Reply
    4. Alanna says

      January 09, 2012 at 7:56 pm

      Stan - I'm so glad you liked it! I bet apples would be great, though you might need to cook them first on their own (like here: https://bojongourmet.com/2010/10/uber-apple-upside-down-cake.html) since they don't soften as much as pears do during baking.

      Reply
    5. Nicole says

      January 13, 2016 at 8:00 pm

      I know I'm commenting yeeeaaaarrrrsssss after you posted this, but I just want to tell you first, that this was so delicious and everyone raved for days about the cake. Secondly, I just wanted to note that for me, I had to bake the cake for at least an hour, and up to an hour and ten minutes at times. Whenever I checked the cake at 30 minutes it was still pretty much liquid. Anyway, just incase I'm not the only one, wanted to point out that it may take double the time as stated in the recipe. You are amazing and congrats on the book!

      Reply
    6. Anita Sabados says

      January 14, 2020 at 5:18 pm

      I loved this cake. Moist, tart, sweet and gooey. I made it in a 10" pan and it took 40 minutes and probably could have left it in longer. I thought it would cook alot faster but it seems I'm not the only one with issues with the baking time. However, small quibble. I use those as a guide and not a rule. I am wondering why this cake can't last longer than a day or two? I won't eat it that fast but I'm sure it will still be good in a few days

      Reply
    7. Deb says

      August 21, 2020 at 9:59 pm

      Perfect...I used dried cranberrys. The taste is amazing. Great eay to use up soft pears. This cake want last long as so yummy.

      Reply
      • Alanna says

        August 27, 2020 at 10:54 am

        I'm so glad you liked it and the the dried cranberries worked!

        Reply

    Leave a comment and rating Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Rate this recipe after you've made it:




    Primary Sidebar

    Welcome

    Alanna Taylor-Tobin smiling and holding her cookbook, Alternative Baker

    I'm Alanna, a recovering pastry chef-turned food photographer, stylist, videographer, and award-winning cookbook author. The Bojon Gourmet is a celebration of the sweet, savory, and occasionally boozy recipes that I create in my San Francisco kitchen. About →

    Get new recipes by email

    Please wait...

    Thanks for subscribing!

    the front cover of Alternative Baker, a cookbook by Alanna Taylor-Tobin, winner of the IACP Cookbook Awards

    My cookbook, Alternative Baker, contains 100+ recipes featuring corn, oat, chestnut, almond, buckwheat, sorghum, and other gluten-free flours. Find out where to get your copy! →

    Fresh from the blog

    How to Build a Vibrant Summer Cheese Board

    Basil Butter

    Gluten-Free Strawberry Shortcake

    Gluten-Free Madeleines

    Footer

    Instagram

    #peachseason has me craving this cobbler that’s #peachseason has me craving this cobbler that’s GF, paleo-friendly, and vegan! 

Made with almond, cassava and tapioca flours, these biscuits have a crusty tops and floofy middles. Combine them with tender roasted peaches and a scoop of vanilla ice cream for a cozy early summer dessert. 

#glutenfreebaking #peachcobbler #paleobaking 
https://bojongourmet.com/vegan-paleo-peach-cobbler-gluten-free/
    Sending everyone out there a hug in the form of th Sending everyone out there a hug in the form of this GF strawberry shortcake🍓

These beauties are made with the same dough as the GF almond flour scones I shared earlier this month. 

Cut the dough into round biscuits, bake them until the tops are golden and craggy, then smother them in whipped cream and honey-kissed berries. 

For dairy-free / vegan, make the biscuits with plant butter, coconut milk, and a flax egg and top with rich coconut yogurt such as @culinayogurt. 

#shortcake #strawberryshortcake #strawberryseason #f52farmstand #bojongourmet #glutenfreebaking #gfbaking 

https://bojongourmet.com/gluten-free-strawberry-shortcake/
    Cherry recipe du jour because #cherryseason: roast Cherry recipe du jour because #cherryseason: roasted cherry ice cream sandwiches with GF double chocolate buckwheat cookies 😋

Here fresh cherries are roasted in sugar and bourbon, pitted and chopped, and mixed with more bourbon. This process releases water and condenses flavor, making a chunky compote that stays soft when frozen into a vanilla ice cream base. 

When sandwiched between these super-chocolatey cookies, the effect is downright addictive. And just the thing for the warm weather we’re currently having in California!☀️

Bojon appétit! 

https://bojongourmet.com/roasted-cherry-ice-cream-sandwiches-with-salted-double-chocolate-buckwheat-cookies-gluten-free/

#chocolatelovers #icecream #icecreamsandwich
    Serving up some cherry ins-PIE-ration 🍒 this hu Serving up some cherry ins-PIE-ration 🍒 this hump day. 

This GF cherry pie combines my fave flaky GF pie crust with fresh sweet cherries kissed with GF whiskey and spices. Sublime served warm with a scoop of ice cream on top! 

https://bojongourmet.com/spiced-bourbon-cherry-pie-gluten-free/

#cherrypie #glutenfreepie #cherryseason🍒 #gfbaking
    Next up for 🍒 week: gluten-free cherry clafouti Next up for 🍒 week: gluten-free cherry clafoutis! 

This French baked custard studded with juicy cherries infused with brandy or whiskey sits somewhere between a dutch baby and a pudding cake. Fresh cherries meet vanilla scented almond flour batter in this easy peasy summer dessert. Bliss!

For dairy-free, replace the milk and cream with full-fat coconut milk and use vegan butter. 

Bojon appétit! 🍒

#clafoutis #cherryseason #f52farmstand #howisummer #glutenfreebaking 

https://bojongourmet.com/gluten-free-cherry-clafoutis/
    It’s cherry season in California so I’m sharin It’s cherry season in California so I’m sharing a few favorite ways to use them from TBG this week. 🍒

Up first: tart cherry Eton mess with poppyseed almond meringues

These lightly caramelized meringues have a delightful crunch against tangy whipped yogurt and tart cherry compote. Pretty much my dream dessert right here! 

Use sweet cherries if sour cherries aren’t available. Use rich coconut yogurt instead of dairy to make this DF. 

#cherryseason🍒 #glutenfreedessert #f52farmstand #sourcherries 

https://bojongourmet.com/tart-cherry-eton-mess-poppy-seed-almond-meringues/

    Navigation

    • Recipe Finder
    • Cookbook
    • About
    • In the Press

    Get new posts in your inbox

    Please wait...

    Thanks for signing up!

    This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use. To find out more, see our Privacy Policy.

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest

    More Bojon

    • Learn with Me
    • Work With Me
    • Portfolio

    Copyright © 2022 The Bojon Gourmet | Site by Jaime Asatsuyu Hammack