BIRD FOOD: maple pear upside-down cake

i have really wanted to do more baking.  the problem is, when i make something, it is usually just me eating the majority of it (which isn't so great for fitting into my pants!) however, i would really like to experiment more.  we bought a really large bag of pears, at costco, last week so i decided to try to make something out of them.  this yummy maple pear upside-down cake was the perfect solution.  it is soooo tasty and perfect with vanilla yogurt!  i followed this recipe. 

Maple Pear Upside-down Cake

INGREDIENTS

11 tablespoons butter at room temperature

3/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

4 pears, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

DIRECTIONS:

preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9” cake pan, being careful to coat the edges.

mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

in a seperate bowl, beat 8 tbsp butter and white sugar until light and fluffy. gradually add eggs one at a time, along with vanilla.

slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, alternating with milk.

on the stove, bring 3 tbsp butter, maple syrup and brown sugar to a boil and cook for 2 minutes, stirring slowly until sugar dissolves. remove from heat and set aside.

once the maple syrup mixture has cooled slightly, pour it into the bottom of the cake pan. arrange pear slices in an overlapping circle on top of the syrup and pour batter over fruit, spreading gently with a spatula for equal cover.

bake about 45-50 minutes. allow cake to cool fully before sliding a blade around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake from the edge. place a large plate on top of the pan and flip so that the pan is on top and the plate is on the bottom.