Pear Streusel Cake

I love streusel. How can you not? Yummy bits of cinnamon, sugar, and buttery goodness. Whether in cake or muffins, as a topping or hidden in layers, I’m all about the streusel. I had some lonely pears hanging around and found this yummy recipe by Diana Rattray, on southernfood.about.com.

Ingredients:
2 medium pears, peeled and cored, chopped
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Streusel topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter, cold, cut in small pieces
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup chopped pecans (I didn’t have any on hand)

Cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk, whole or low fat
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup butter, melted

Grease and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350°.

Toss chopped pears with lemon juice in a bowl; set aside.

In another bowl, combine streusel ingredients, except pecans, with a fork until crumbly, or pulse with food processor. Stir in pecans, if using.

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; stir to blend.

Whisk eggs in a mixing bowl until blended; stir in milk, vanilla, and butter. Add to flour mixture and fold with a wooden spoon or spatula just until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon half of the batter into prepared loaf pan; spread out to cover the bottom. Sprinkle batter with half of the pears and half of the streusel. Spoon remaining batter evenly over streusel, spreading carefully to cover. Sprinkle with half of the remaining streusel, the remaining chopped pears and then the remaining streusel.

Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife carefully around sides; invert the cake onto plate. Turn the cake, streusel side up, onto a rack and let cool on a rack completely. Enjoy!

Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure my dog is out to ruin Christmas. But he looks so sweet – right? Wrong! Two days in a row now he’s tried to destroy our Christmas tree. This morning I awoke to the sound of Christmas ornaments crunching. Not a good sound.

Dog or wanna-be grinch?