Spiced Pear Upside Down Cake

Instructions

1. Coat a 10-inch-round, 2-inch-deep cake pan with cooking spray. Line with parchment paper coated with butter, then flour the pan.
2. In a medium skillet, add butter, orange juice, cranberry juice and molasses over medium heat. Cook until bubbling, about 4 minutes. Add pears and cook about 3 minutes. Turn over; cook until slightly softened, about 3 minutes more. Arrange pears, cut sides down, in prepared cake pan. Continue cooking orange juice mixture until syrupy, 5 minutes more; pour over pears. Transfer cake pan to freezer so syrup will set up (don't let it freeze), about 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor or blender, pulse 11/2 cups flour and walnuts until nuts are finely ground. Add baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon; pulse to mix.
4. In a medium bowl, beat together eggs, orange zest and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Fold in walnut mixture in two parts. Stir in oil. Pour batter over pears and syrup. Smooth with a spatula.
5. Transfer cake pan to a foil-lined sheet pan; bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50–60 minutes. Let cool in cake pan on a wire rack 30 minutes. Run a knife around cake's edge and invert onto a serving plate. Remove parchment and let cool 30 minutes more.