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 mins
Cook Time 55 minutes mins
- 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
- 1½ cups plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
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.
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.