This cake has a crunchy pecan-brown sugar topping and a layer of pears in the middle.
Topping
1 1/2 cups pecans (about 6 ounces)
1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Cake
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups 1/2-inch cubes peeled pears
For topping:
Blend first 4 ingredients in processor until nuts are coarsely chopped. Add butter; using on/off turns, blend until coarse crumbs form.
For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan. Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Gradually add both sugars and beat until well blended. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, then lemon peel and vanilla. Blend sour cream and milk in small bowl. Beat in sour cream mixture alternately with dry ingredients in 3 additions each. Spread half of cake batter in prepared pan. Sprinkle half of topping over; cover with pears. Spread remaining batter over; sprinkle with remaining topping.
Bake until top is brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Cool cake completely in pan on rack. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and store at room temperature.)
Makes 12 servings.
Bon Appétit
October 2003
A Cook from Florence, Alabama on 11/03/03
Loved it. No problems. Great taste.
A Cook from Oak Harbor, WA on 10/24/03
This is a wonderful recipe. I changed it a bit by omitting the nuts and substituting wild blueberries for the pears. It was very well-received and it my new standard for coffee cake!
Suroor ( suroora@hotmail.com ) from Geneva, Switzerland on 10/21/03
This was delicious--very rich, though. The only problem I had was I didn't have enough batter for the two layers. Just managed to scrape enough. Maybe my pan was bigger than it should have been? Definitely one I'd make again.
A Cook from Fort Lauderdale on 10/15/03
An excellent coffee cake, made it exactly as written except for only having fat free sour cream on hand. I baked it exactly fifty minutes and it was done. The lemon zest in the cake really adds a nice touch, I could see making this with other fruits as well, apples, cranberries, raisins etc. The cake is perfectly moist with a fine crumb. Really lovely recipe and easy too.
I'm copying to mt files to try soon. thanks for posting.
