Story of a cooking week turned upside down:
I mostly cook on Sunday or Monday.  It's a thing.  I usually have just enough time to get done what needs to get done without it being a terrible rush.  I take full advantage and do the bulk of my cooking and baking on one (or both) of those days.  This week however...
D's Mom has arrived back from her winter stint in Trinidad.  It's wonderful.  It meant that Saturday evening was the first date night that D and I have had together since, well,  a long time.  We both stared at each other a bit.  Didn't know exactly what to say.  Once we got used to not having two smaller versions of ourselves pulling, asking, tugging, complaining and generally making noise around us, we were off and running.  Wonderful night.  Went to long.  Slept in the next morning.


Sleeping in isn't a problem usually.  In fact, it's quite wonderful.  This Sunday though, I had a shower to attend.  Not one where you get wet and soapy but one where you bring a gift and somebody makes a ridiculous hat and there's lots of cooing and mimosa's.  Then we had kids to pick up.  And then it was rainy and gross and my cooking window closed for that day. No food - D made a kick ass stew.
On to Monday.  Of course there was work.  No problem.  As you know I bike to work.  Back in the fall I had this weird stint where once a week for 3 weeks in a row I blew a tire.  The same day each time.  Not the same tire.  It was totally weird.  Since then I've been biking regularly with no more tire incidents... until Monday.  I hustled out of work to find my back tire totally flat.  Dead.  Absolutely nothing remotely resembling air in that back tire.  Well that changed everything.  Just like that I was taking the TTC home, driving Kid #1 to her choir rehearsal so that I could end up back at my school to pick up my bike, dropping my bike off to get a new back tire, running back home to put this cake together, popping said cake into the oven for D to watch over, going out for a run at the end of which I stop to pick up my bike and ride it the rest of the way home.  I'm tired just writing all of that.  No proper food was made that day by me.  D made spaghetti sauce.  Somehow though in the midst of that ridiculously run on sentence you might have seen that a cake got assembled and popped into an oven.


Yep.
Here is the cake made after 2 days of weird circumstances seemed to conspire against any food being concocted at all.  It's like a miracle cake.


Tomorrow I will be cooking because I have this chard tart that is burning a hole in my pocket so to speak.  For now though I am happily munching on this pear cake - even took some to work.  If you want something sweet and icingy then this isn't your cake.  If you want something more like a loaf than a cake that will go perfectly with your morning or afternoon snack time pretty damn close to perfect then this is the cake for you.  The batter was kinda gloppy for me and I was scared that it would turn out but I absolutely love this cake.  It's just sweet enough.  It's just dense enough adn it gets better with age.  And it comes together pretty darn quickly and easily.


Pear Cake adapted from Smitten Kitchen
makes on tube pan cake

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 lg eggs
2 cups pear or apple shredded, finely chopped or even pureed
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.
Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg together in a bowl and mix.  Set aside.
Beat together the softened butter and the sugar.  Mix until light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs until the mixture is quite frothy - about 4 minutes.  Mix in the pear and vanilla.  Stir until mixed.
Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture.  Stir until combined.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake for about 65  - 75 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the cake tin to cool completely.