New Recipe! Pear Poke Cake

I prettied up the top with a little canned whipped cream!

Hi everyone! I love this time of year for one reason...the harvest of many delicious fruits and veggies. (I could really do without the cold weather!) And I recently bought a bushel of pears which I do every year. I love all things pear! I put up pints and pints of pear jam and pear syrup that I love to eat on toast and pancakes or waffles. But I found a new use for my pear syrup and that brings me to today's blog post. A new recipe I came up with to satisfy my appetite for all things Pear, oh and my sweet tooth. Pear Poke Cake! Now keep in mind this is not for those watching their sugar intake, but it sure is good!

Here is what you will need:

Boxed yellow cake mix (and anything that box recipe requires)
 1 1/2 pints of bottled pear syrup (I just bottle the pear jam recipe that's in the pectin box, but leave out the pectin, so the sugar and pear ratios are the same but it stays thinner.) If you don't bottle pear syrup, but want to make this cake I would recommend making a simple syrup with 4 Cups pureed pears and 6 Cups sugar. Heat to boil until all sugar is dissolved then cool and measure 3 1/2 cups to use on cake. (Then save the rest for pancakes, waffles or serve over Fage Greek Yogurt, you will thank me!)
1 14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 8 oz Cool Whip, thawed
1 8 oz Cream Cheese, at room temp.

Here is what I did:

Baked a box yellow cake according to box directions, right when it comes out of the oven and is hot make holes all over in the cake with a large spoon, pour the two pints of pear syrup into the holes until they are full and then pour the rest all over the top of the cake. Let cool. Then to make the frosting, whip softened cream cheese in mixer until smooth and fluffy, then add the sweetened condensed milk until smooth, then add Cool Whip and whip until fluffy. Then when cake is completely cooled frost and refrigerate. I like this made the day before you serve it to allow all the flavors to mingle. Mmmm....I don't think I can wait until tomorrow, gotta have a piece now!! Enjoy!

I like to make large holes!

Pouring the syrup into the holes.

I know it looks like it's swimming at this point, but I promise it will soak into the cake and be delicious! (When tweaking this recipe I started with only one jar of syrup, the pear flavor didn't come through like I wanted so I went with one and a half, two was a sugar coma!)

The completed cake. I then would take the canned whipped cream and pretty up the top!

This cake sets up and isn't as runny as shown in the picture if you make it the day before and refrigerate, but like I said I had a pear craving and could not wait!