Cake with Pears

• Having made an apple cake – in a different way with eating apples – I thought this recipe would work well with pears.

INGREDIENTS

• 100g of butter – softened.
• 95g of granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon of vanilla essence
• 4 tablespoons of soured cream
• 100g of cream cheese (or yoghurt cheese)
• 3 eggs
• *
• 150g plain flour
• 50g potato flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• *
• Butter to grease the tin
• *
• 3 large fairy ripe pears – such as Conference or 6 small ones
• ½ tablespoon of granulated sugar and ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger (or cinnamon)

METHOD

• Brush a 26cm in diameter loose bottomed tin with the melted butter.
• Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C.
• Cream the butter with the 95g of sugar.
• Add the cream cheese, soured cream and eggs and whisk well together.
• Mix the plain flour, potato flour, salt and baking powder together.
• Add the flour mixture gently to the other ingredients and mix well together.
• Leave in the bowl whilst you prepare the pears.
• *
• Mix the ½ tablespoon of sugar with the ground ginger.
• Peel and core the pears and cut then in quarters (or halves if small pears)
• Criss-cross the domed end of the pears with a sharp knife.
• Put them into the sugar mixture.
• *
• Put the cake batter into the tin and smooth flat.
• Put the pear quarters (or halves) around the top of the batter.
• Bake for 45-50 minutes.
• Leave to cool in the tin.

Dust with icing sugar before serving.