Friday 9 July 2010

Pear and Ginger Cake

This was a spur of the moment baking idea to use up a few ripe pears which didn't have much flavour. I didn't want a heavy gingerbread type of cake as it seemed too heavy for the exceptionally hot weather we're having at the moment, so I just added a little powdered ginger and some stem ginger (plus some syrup from the jar) to an all-in-one sponge cake mixture. I also drizzled some Dulce de Leche over the pears before baking to improve their flavour. This wasn't visible after baking, so just added to the sweetness rather than giving a visual effect. Because of the caramel, I reduced the sugar in the sponge mix slightly.

This was a moist but still quite light cake, with just the right amount of gingery tang and juicy pieces of pear. Some of the pears were still visible on the surface and some of the larger pieces sank, which was OK, as it gave a more random distribution. It made a great dessert with cream or yogurt.

I apologise for the poor photograph - by the time I realised I hadn't taken a good one, there was nothing left to photograph!

Ingredients

4 small ripe pears, peeled, cored, divided into 6 pieces and held in acidulated water while the batter is mixed.
Batter:
100g butter, softened
120g caster sugar
2 large eggs
50ml sour cream
150g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
3 balls stem ginger, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of syrup from the ginger jar

75g Dulce de Leche 

Method

Pre-heat oven to 170C, prepare a 8" diameter round springform tin. (I line the base and grease the sides)
Place all the batter ingredients (except the Dulce de Leche) into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until the batter is smooth. Transfer to the springform tin and level with a spoon.
Drain the pear slices and lay on kitchen paper to dry a little, then arrange neatly on top of the batter.
Drizzle the Dulce de Leche over the pears (I put it into a freezer bag, then cut off the tip to make a piping bag)
Bake for about 50 - 60 minutes until a test probe is clean. Cool in tin.
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9 comments:

  1. Maria♥9 July 2010 at 14:49

    What a great cake to use up those ripe pears. Looks perfect!

    Maria
    x

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  2. Choclette9 July 2010 at 20:09

    Lovely idea - pear and ginger go well together. It's a very nice looking cake - whatever you say about the photographs.

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  3. Joanna10 July 2010 at 01:22

    If and when my pears ripen (first time ever we've got some fruit on the tree) I'll come back and borrow this lovely recipe, if I may, Suelle. I like stem ginger in syrup very much, used to put it in those Delia sticky puddings from her Christmas book, going back a bit now that is.

    Actually if they all ripen I'll have to think of something else to do as well...

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  4. Brownieville Girl10 July 2010 at 02:05

    I find more often than not, that pears are low in flavour ... great way to combat this.

    Love the pear ginger combination.

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  5. Suelle10 July 2010 at 06:30

    Pear and ginger does seem to be a classic pairing, doesn't it?

    Joanna - lucky you to be expecting a harvest. Our three apple trees have only two apples between them this year. One tree produced no blossom and the other two were caught in the frosts at the end of April and lost almost eveything.

    I have 5 pear recipes here - the pear and almond cake which is a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe is my favourite.

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  6. Lucie11 July 2010 at 09:50

    This looks a wonderful recipe. A lovely way to use up pears.

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  7. Caroline11 July 2010 at 16:05

    Pear and ginger is such a good combination. I love the slightly grainy texture cooked pears have, and I love ginger full stop! I know what you mean about not wanting a heavy sticky ginger cake in this weather, and this looks perfect. I think the photo is fine, good even! I perhaps ought to apologise for some of the photography on my blog, but I'm not a professional photographer so I'm not going to!

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  8. The Caked Crusader12 July 2010 at 09:17

    Pear and ginger are two of my favourite cake flavours...so I think you can guess the rapidity with which I've printed this recipe!!!

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  9. Katie28 July 2010 at 07:41

    This looks gorgeous. The perfect afternoon tea cake. I love pear and ginger together

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