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Pear and gingerbread upside-down cake

An upside-down cake that celebrates Winter flavours is sometimes just what you crave. In this recipe pear and gingerbread is matched for a delicious treat of a cake.
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 55 minutes
Course Dessert
Servings 8
Kid Friendly

Ingredients
  

  • 50 g butter
  • 2 tablespoons golden syrup
  • 3-4 pears peeled, cored and quartered (I used Winter Nelis)
  • 3-4 cubes crystallised ginger sliced

Cake

  • 125 g butter
  • ½ cup golden syrup plus extra for serving if desired
  • cups plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease or lightly spray the base and sides of a 23cm cake tin with cooking spray.
  • In a small pot melt the butter and golden syrup together and pour into the base of the cake tin. Arrange pear quarters and crystallised ginger slices decoratively over syrup mixture.
  • For the cake, melt the second measures of butter and golden syrup in a medium pot. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and ginger into a large bowl and stir in the brown sugar. Whisk the eggs and milk together in a separate bowl.
  • Stir the golden syrup mixture and the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and keep stirring until smooth and glossy. Pour batter over pear base, place tin on a baking tray (to catch any syrup overflow) and bake for 50-55 minutes or until golden and a skewer can be removed cleanly from the centre of the cake.
  • Invert cake onto a serving plate while warm and serve with an extra drizzle of golden syrup if desired.

Notes

Serve this upside-down cake warm with ice cream or whipped cream for dessert or a special afternoon tea.
Pears are a Kiwi staple – did you know that some of the first fruit trees were planted by Samuel Marsden in 1819 and one – a pear tree – is still growing today?
Another of my favourite pear recipes are these Baked pears with blue cheese, walnuts and thyme – perfect on a cheese platter.
This recipe is from NADIA magazine.