Geoff’s Jewish Apple Pear Cake

My buddy Geoff loves to bake and whenever there is a get together at someone’s house to celebrate a birthday, holiday or Michigan football game, Geoff is asked to bake something special. I have mentioned him before for his absolutely incredible Chocolate Chip Cookies.

This past weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving in February at Barbecue Bob’s home and Geoff brought the cookies plus this Apple Pear Cake. It was delicious so I wanted to share his adapted recipe and tips.

Here’s what Geoff said, “The recipe below came from a cookbook put together by Price Waterhouse Coopers of favorite employee recipes. It never fails to draw rave reviews…but as usual, I have altered the recipe a bit to make it more interesting. The original recipe was for Jewish Style Apple Cake.”

Ingredients

2 Bartlett Pears
2 Granny Smith Apples
1 Braeburn or Macintosh Apple
5 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 cup veg. oil
2 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup orange juice

How to Make Apple Pear Cake at Home

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease tube pan.

In a large bowl, beat well the oil sugar, eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, salt and baking powder. Add orange juice. Peel and slice the fruit and mix with 5 tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon. Make layers of batter and fruit. Bake 1 1/2 hours. Let cool in pan before inverting. Serves 12-16.

Geoff’s Tip- if you prepare the fruit before the batter, the fruit mix becomes too liquidy and causes the cake to stick to the pan. While this cake always tastes good, I have had some problems with it sticking, so choose your pan carefully, butter it well and remove the cake carefully.