Upside-down Pear Cake

Place an oven rack in the lower third of oven and preheat oven to 325F
(350F if pan doesn’t have a dark finish.) Grease and flour a rosette or 10
inch round pan. Cut out a parchment paper round and place in pan. In a
small saucepan, melt the 5 tablespoons butter. Cool about 5 minutes. Add
the 7 tablespoons brown sugar and stir to combine. Spread evenly over
parchment-lined cake pan. Peel, quarter and core the pear. Cut each pear
quarter lengthwise into thin slices, and arrange the slices on sugar
mixture in a circle similar to the spokes of a wheel. Set aside. Sift the
flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, black pepper
and salt together onto a sheet of waxed paper; set aside. Using an electric
mixer, preferably with a paddle attachment, beat butter until it is creamy
and smooth, about 30 to 45 seconds. Add the sugars and continue to beat
until light in color, about 3 to 4 minutes. Stop the mixer occasionally to
scrape the sides of the bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, until mixture is
fluffy in appearance. Add the vanilla. At a low speed, add dry ingredients
alternately with the milk beginning and ending with dry ingredients in 3
additions. Stop mixer occasionally to scrape the bowl. Thoroughly combine
ingredients until batter is smooth after each addition. Spread batter
evenly over pear slices. Bake 42 to 46 minutes, or until cake springs back
when pressed lightly in the center, and a wooden toothpick inserted in the
center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 3 minutes. Tilt
pan to loosen cake. Invert onto a serving plate, and let stand for about 2
minutes before removing pan.

Per serving: 405 Calories; 17g Fat (38% calories from fat); 5g Protein; 59g
Carbohydrate; 97mg Cholesterol; 206mg Sodium