In my October blog, “Dessert Before Dinner… Anyone,” I shared that my family and I love the occasions when we have breakfast for dinner. I also shared since being plant based most of our meals, if not all, are interchangeable. Many of the meals we have for breakfast or brunch can be eaten during dinner and vice versa. In my past written pieces and on my social media sites you’ll see a myriad of recipes along with photographs showing some of the versatile plant based foods we’ve had. Some foods my family and I have had for our first time. Some of them we’ve had more than once, but made differently. Some foods we’ve enjoyed so much, although made the same ways, using the same ingredients, etc. we have had them more often then we probably should. My family and I love what we love, yet we love to love something new too…

Though October’s blog is about having our dessert before dinner, I got a little carried away with talking about having breakfast/brunch for dinner. Here I’ll share a little more about having dessert before dinner. I think the idea of having dessert before dinner started during my family’s road trips. My family and I spend quite a bit of time enjoying adventures on the road. We usually have snacks packed to eat while in the car. Most times they’re eaten and finished before we have our dinner. There are also those occasions when we simply want to indulge in a sweet treat before our evening meal. These occasions make us feel like BIG Kids. We love heading out to pickup dessert we get to eat up before our last main course.

If you haven’t already, perhaps you should… have your dessert before dinner if you could… Since I absolutely love making sweet treats for my family to have at anytime… and whenever we like… I’ll share a recent recipe I made while enjoying time in my kitchen. If you read my previous blog, you already know that it’s my baked pear cake. It’s, of course, completely home made, plant based and brand new. I’ve only made this cake once. I was experimenting with what I should do with the orchard picked pears my family and I brought home in August. Picking pears was too brand new. We’ve picked apples, blueberries and pumpkins from our local orchard, but we had yet to pick pears. Have you read my story, “ Peers… Pairs… Pears… And A Fun-Loving Seer…” It was published on April 30, 2023.

Here’s the recipe for my homemade, plant based baked pear cake…

Baked Layered Pear Cake w/ Lime Maple Cream

First, I decided to change the sauce for this cake. I had planned to make an almond caramel sauce, but I recently picked up a jar of locally made maple cream from a cider mill not far from us here in Connecticut. Before making the sauce, whichever one you prefer for your baked pear cake, clean and slice pears into individual thin whole pieces. I used approximately five sweet and well-ripened Asian pears. I also used a mandoline slicer. After all pears are sliced into individual whole pieces line an oiled or buttered baking dish or pan with the pears. I lined the bottom of my baking dish with a single layer of pears. Then layered the other pear slices on top of the bottom layer. I also put enough slices aside to line the very top once my wet mix was poured in. Before pouring in the wet mix (ingredients below), I brushed the pears with melted butter and sprinkled raw brown sugar over them.

Wet mix (includes dry ingredients) for baked layered pear cake:

• 1 1/2 cups of pastry flour
• Egg replacement
• Baking soda
• Baking powder
• Pink salt
• Raw brown sugar
• Powdered cinnamon
• Grated nutmeg
• Almond milk
• Melted vegan butter
• Vanilla extract
• Maple Cream (sauce)
• Puréed fresh lime with peel (sauce)

Wet mix should be sweet and delicious to taste once well combined. After individual sliced pear pieces are lined on the bottom of the baking dish/pan (I had about 4 layers), pour wet mix over them. Then line the set aside individual whole pear pieces on top of the wet mix, The wet mix should completely cover, yet only thinly coat, the top of the bottom layers of pears. The individual pear slices for the very top layer should lay over the wet mix without being covered. Brush the very top layer of pears with melted butter and sprinkle over them raw brown sugar. Once your baked layered pear cake is ready place in oven at 350 Fahrenheit for approximately 30-40 minutes. To make the sauce simply combine a few spoon fulls of maple cream with your pureed lime with the peel. When your baked layered pear cake is done it should be sweet, moist, spongy and delightful… delicious… and indeed for dessert… at any time… and whenever you like. BIG SMILE…

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