The winner...

Thank you so, so, so much for all the delicious recipes! I promise that I am going to make each and every one at some point (though I'm not doing too much baking while doing WW). I can't believe all the variety I got and except for one recipe did not have a single recipe anything like the ones submitted.

Also, SO fun to see some new faces commenting. Love that. Thanks for outing yourselves :0)

The winning recipe is the Delicate Pear Cake with Carmel Sauce submitted by my darling friend Margo! Congrats Margo!! (For sure my favorite part of today was having an excuse to call Margo to ask her a question about the recipe and chat for a few minutes!)

Just so you know, I actually made a list of all the recipes with a brief description and had Allen choose for me, just to remain completely unbiased!! And he actually chose the recipe I wanted to make! It was a tough choice though and he hard a very hard time choosing! So here are some pictures of the cake before I cut it and then the cake with the sauce:


I must say that the carmel sauce is TOTALLY what made this dessert sooooo delicious. It was a definite hit at the shower and I just snuck out with the remaining two pieces - one for Al and one for my kids to share.

Seriously, thanks for playing along. I will definitely do this again. Here's the recipe:

Delicate Pear Cake with Carmel Sauce – Margo Smith

CAKE
1 16oz can pear halves in extra light syrup
1 pkg. White cake mix
1/3 cup oil
3 egg whites
Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 10 inch spring form pan. Drain pear halves, reserving 1/3 cup liquid. Place pear halves in a blender or food processor blend until smooth. In a large bowl combine cake mix, pureed pears, 1/3 cup of reserved liquid, oil and egg whites. Mix at low speed until moistened. Pour into pan, bake at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let stand and cool completely.

FROSTING
1 cup whipping cream
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 16 oz can pear halves in extra light syrup drained
½ cup finely chopped hazelnuts or walnuts (optional)
In a small bowl beat whipping cream and sugar until stiff peaks form. Fold in vanilla. Frost cooled cake. Cut pear in half lengthwise into about 32 slices. Arrange on top of the cake slightly overlapping. Press nuts into sides of the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

SAUCE
1cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup whipping cream
½ cup butter

In a sauce pan bring all the a boil. Boil over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, cool slightly. Drizzle over each piece of cake.

NOTE
You will need to get 2 16 oz cans of pears
2 pints of whipping cream to equal 2 cups

If you would like a copy of all the recipes, leave a comment (with your email addy) or email me at qballf@gmail.com and I will send them off to you!!