For whatever reason (mostly to do with pears being crunchy instead of soft when ripe which is odd to me and I forget that they exist), we had a large number of pears that were looking like they needed something to be done to them, or else they would be relegated binwards which is something I don't like doing unless I have to. So ... I went on a search to find recipes that might make use of pears. No idea why, but pears and gingerbread seemed to turn up a lot in my searches, and seeing as we've got a slightly cooler patch today in the midst of what is definitely turning into warmer summery weather, I figured it was probably my last chance for a little while to make something that is probably more autumnal than summer in feel. I ended up altering the recipe a bit, mostly because I wanted to do one thing but had most of the stuff for another, and my multi-tasking skills in the morning don't extend to doing fiddly stuff in conjunction with wrangling X and his breakfast (:
Pear and Gingerbread Cake
Heavily adapted from recipe at epicurious.com
Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper.
Melt the butter and milk in a pan.
Beat together the brown sugar and treacle until pale. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well between additions. Beat in flour mixture until just combined. Pour in the butter mixture and beat until just smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.
Scatter the diced pear bits over the top of the cake. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until testing with a skewer is clean.
Heavily adapted from recipe at epicurious.com
- 200g (1.5 cups) plain flour
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1.5 teaspoons ground ginger
- a small grating of nutmeg (maybe 1/8 teaspoon?)
- 115g unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup milk
- 100g dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup treacle
- 3 large eggs
- 4 pears (crunchy brown and green ones), peeled and diced.
Preheat oven to 160°C. Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper.
Melt the butter and milk in a pan.
Beat together the brown sugar and treacle until pale. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well between additions. Beat in flour mixture until just combined. Pour in the butter mixture and beat until just smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.
Scatter the diced pear bits over the top of the cake. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until testing with a skewer is clean.
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