Pear Praline Cake

This bumpy, homey rustic cake looks glorious.  And when pear is cooked inside a cake, it practically melts into another dimension.

• 1 cup flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons plus one teaspoon butter substitute, divided
• ¼ cup nonfat sour cream
• 1 cup nonfat  milk
• 2/3 cup egg substitute
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 large ripe pears, peeled, cored  and cut in ¼ inch slices

Praline Filling

• 4 ounces nonfat cream cheese
• ½ cup nonfat sweetened condensed milk
• ½ cup egg substitute
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans, almonds or walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 8 or 9 inch spring form pan.  Line bottom with parchment paper and spray top of paper also.  In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and 2 tablespoons butter substitute, sour cream, milk, egg substitute, vanilla and almond extracts for 30 seconds on low speed.  Then beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.  (Batter will be thin.)  Pour halo of cake batter into prepared pan.  Arrange pear slices evenly over batter and pour remaining batter over pears.

For filling, beat cream cheese until smooth.  Add sweetened condensed milk.  When mixture is smooth, add egg substitute and vanilla.  Drop small dollops evenly over cake batter and sprinkle with pecans or other nuts. 

Bake about 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out without wet batter on it.  If cake begins to brown excessively before testing done, put a piece of aluminum foil loosely over top and continue baking until done.   Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.  When cool, run a knife around cake edge before removing spring form sides.  Move cake with parchment paper to serving plate. 
Before serving, dust top of cake generously with powdered sugar.