Hi everyone,
So sorry for not posting, I do have ALOT of recipes to share, I have been super busy and i'm getting married so it's a little crazy at the moment but I promise i'll do my best to keep posting!
This cake is easy to make and a great afternoon tea and if you are a pear lover this is your cake, enjoy.
The Perfect flourless Pear cake I have lots of cakes that I’ve baked for family and friends’ birthdays which demand to be written about, but this one has jumped the queue. And why is that? I’ll tell you. Because out of the legion of cakes I’ve baked to date, this is the only one to pass muster without complaints from my mum, who is the Queen of buts you might say; ‘It tastes good … but too dry!’
‘It’s niiice, but too sweet!’
‘It’s almost perfect but too much chocolate!’
‘This one could be great, but why you don’t let it cook longer?’
You get the picture: for my mum my food is a parade of also rans with a few bronze medal winners getting jostled in the crush of mediocrity.
So when my mum said, ‘Nava, this cake is beautiful.” I immediately replied, ‘…but it’s…’
She said, ‘What do you mean but?’ as if she wasn’t familiar with the word.
‘But it’s too dry or sweet or over cooked?’ I suggested helpfully, because I was out of my comfort zone here.
But she said, ‘No, I don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s PERFECT!’
I asked my sister to slap me to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, she was very cooperative and it was very clear to me I wasn’t dreaming. I was still toying with the idea that aliens had kidnapped my mum and left an imposter behind … but maybe the more outlandish idea that my mum couldn’t fault my cake was actually worth considering. So I though, I’ll go for it.
So it’s official. It has the stamp of approval of the but Queen herself. This P for perfect cake is jumping to the head of the queue for its perfectly delicate flavour, perfectly poached pears, for the perfect appearance and perfect sweetness. Just saying…
Ingredients
for cake
4 (59g each) large eggs at room temperature
144g white sugar
113g butter at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
280g almond meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 large pears
3 (30g) tablespoons of brown sugar
25 g butter
Ingredients
For poached pears
2 large pears, peeled.
500mls white wine
100mls water
125g sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cinnamon sticks or ½-1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
¼-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
Method
For cake
Preheat the oven to 170C.
Line a 20cm round springform cake tin with baking paper.
Peel the pears and cut in half, remove core. Turn the pear halves flat side down and cut them into thin slices.
Melt butter and brown sugar together and pour into cake tin over baking paper. Cover with one of the sliced pears in a circular pattern.
Place almond meal, salt, and baking powder in a bowl and mix until ingredients are well combined. Set aside.
Using a hand-held mixer or a standalone mixer with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until the mixture is lighter in colour and has a fluffy texture. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure all of the butter and sugar are incorporated. This creaming process should take around five minutes.
Lower the mixer speed to medium and add eggs, one a time, beating well after each addition, add vanilla extract and almond extract.
While the mixer is still running, add almond mixture in thirds and mix until fully incorporated.
Pour half the cake batter on top of arranged pears.
Arrange the remaining sliced pears so they cover the top of the batter.
Spoon the remainder of the batter on top of te pears and bake for 45min or when a skewer is inserted into the centre of the cake it comes out clean.
Poached pears
Method
Place a saucepan, big enough to hold two large pears, over medium heat.
Not including the pears, place the poached-pear recipe ingredients into the pan and mix until the sugar has dissolved completely.
Place the pears gently in the saucepan and bring to the boil.
Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook pears for 50-60 min
Make sure you rotate the pears every 15-20min so they are cooked evenly all over.
Once ready transfer the pears onto a plate.
Drizzle ½ the pear sauce over the cake. Once it has cooled down place the pears on top and drizzle the remaining pear sauce over the cake.