Fabulously Sweet Pear Cake

"This is one of the best cakes I've ever made. I did modify it a little, though. I omitted the nuts, because I wanted to share this with my neighbor and she hates nuts. I cut the pears like I would ..." See moremy apples for apple pie, and I didn't puree them, which was ideal for this cake. You can cut back on the oil by 1/4 cup and it will remain moist. I will continue cutting back on the oil 1/4 cup at a time until I get to a point where I know I need to stop. I did this with my cousin's zucchini bread recipe and I was able to cut it from 1-cup to 1/3 cups. By reducing the oil you can reduce the fat content in this recipe. Also, use "ripe" pears, ones where the skin has started to go from green to yellow. If the pears aren't "ripe" you won't get the full flavor of this deliciously moist cake."

"I wish I had cooked this in a loaf pan (I cooked it in the specified 9 by 13 pan)...it was much more like a dense sweet bread than a cake. My pears were very ripe (hubby couldn't believe I wasn't thro..." See morewing them away! LOL) & I let them sit in the sugar mixture for longer than an hour (got distracted & left them for about 3 hours)...they had a lot of liquid in them so I decreased the oil down to 1/4 of a cup but I think it probably needed just a bit more. This cake has a very unique, subtle flavor that gets better bite after bite. I frosted this w/ Brown Sugar Sauce (from this site). My hubby ate two huge pieces! I forgot to add that the cooking time is indeed wayy off. I set the oven for an hour but because of my obsessive habit of opening the oven door, I caught it just in the nick of time w/ about 10 minutes still left on the timer."

"Perfect use for overripe pears. I used hand mixer & left small chunks which added nice texture, also added ginger & cinnamon and cut oil to 2/3 cup and cook time to 50 min...." See more"