Cranberry Sauce Pear Cake

I made a batch of cranberry sauce about 2 weeks ago. It's so easy to make that even though I do love the canned version I wanted to make my own. I was in a Pre-Thanksgiving mood so I cooked up a chicken, whipped up some gravy and cranberry sauce that I served along with wild rice and baby peas. It was such a delicious meal and we were all so happy to have the house smelling like the holidays.

I love to spread leftover cranberry sauce on turkey sandwiches. I love the sweet and tart flavor it lends to to the savory flavor of the turkey. But a roaster does not yield too many sandwiches and I found myself with all this leftover cranberry sauce that I did not want to toss. So I created this cake. And when everyone was asking for seconds and thirds I decided I should blog about it and share the recipe with you. Hope the recipe is accurate... I forgot to take notes as I went along!

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees F for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, test for doneness after 1 hour.

OR 350 degrees F if cooking in CONVECTION oven (as I did) for 1 hour
(My oven has a convection setting and I have started baking and roasting on this setting and love it!)

Ingredients:

3 cups of flour
1 1/3 cups of sugar
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla (I eyeballed it)
4 eggs
3/4 cups of canola oil
3 medium pears, peeled, and cut into bite sized pieces
1 1/2 cups of cranberry sauce (recipe below) the kind with the berries

* In your mixer's bowl add flour, baking soda and sugar and mix well
* Add oil, eggs and vanilla and mix well
* Add cranberry sauce, mixture will turn purple!
* Gently fold in pears

*Pour mixture in to a tube or bundt pan
*Place in preheated oven for time mentioned above

*Remove and let cool 15 to 20 minutes before serving

*Sprinkle powdered sugar over the top

Enjoy!

I served this cake in the morning for breakfast the following morning. I liked it better warm (had a sample the night before! I warmed each slice in the microwave for about 15 seconds prior to serving. This would make a fabulous tea cake as well. And a fabulous gift to bring your host and hostess if you are going away this holiday season!

Care to have a slice?


How to make Cranberry Sauce

This simply cannot get any easier!
You'll need:

1 bag of fresh cranberries
1 cup of water
1 cup of sugar
Optional, add 1 - 2 teaspoons of orange rind

In a medium saucepan add your ingredients and stir over medium heat until sugar and water mix together and berries start to pop open. Cook for approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat Mixture will start to thicken as it cooks and will continue to thicken as it cools.

If you are a cranberry lover as I am, you might also want to try Rebecca's Colonial Cranberry Cake or my Cranberry Raisin Cake