This cake is divine!
I had some pears that needed using up before my next fruit box arrived and smh.com.au had an article on the best afternoon tea cakes/loafs. That article linked me through to Sophistimom's blog - which has lots of fabulous recipes! I've just converted Sophistimom's recipe for the thermomix but Sophistimom says she was inspired by a Martha Stewart recipe!
I found this recipe will make two small loaf cakes or one square cake. My boys and DH ate one of these loaves uniced within about 4 hours of it being made - so lucky i had another. It is the most perfect morning tea or afternoon tea cake iced with some cream cheese icing.
Ingredients:
2-3 ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
110 gram unsalted butter
85 grams brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 grams sour cream or yoghurt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamon
11/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp salt
250 grams plain flour
Method:
Add pears, 1/4 cup white sugar and the lemon juice into TMX. Cook 100°C / 15 mins / speed 1. When finished cooking, mash the pears 5-7 secs / speed 5.
Measure out 11/2 cups of the pear sauce and set aside. Clean bowl.
Add remaining white sugar and grind speed 9 / 5 secs. Add butter and brown sugar and cream speed 4 / 2 mins.
Add in eggs, vanilla and sour cream and mix speed 5 / 2 mins.
Add spices, flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, salt and knead / 30 secs until it is just combined.
Add in pear sauce and mix speed 1-2 / 7 secs.
Bake in 2 lined loaf tins for 30-40 mins @ 160°C
members' commentsLucyH - We loved this cake!
Stephanie - Yum. I'm about to pull mine out of the oven. It smells divine. My mother in law will be here shortly for afternoon tea - she's an award winning CWA cook so I'm hoping to impress. I used tinned pears because I had a random tin in the pantry and I'm trying to eat what we have to hand. I also used GF flour and allspice instead of cardamon and nutmeg (could not be bothered grinding them). The batter was delicious! I found a block of philly and some walnuts in the freezer - mmmmm cream cheese icing. I also used a touch of stevia powder with the pears instead of sugar and rapadura instead of brown sugar. That means I can have an extra piece doesn't it
Thanks for a great recipe.
Update - My MIL was very impressed. The cake was so delicious - everyone devoured it and it did not suffer from using the GF flour - I find you have to eat cakes very quickly if you use the gf flour as it seems to dry them out within a day or so. That was no problem with this cake as it was gone within 24 hours!
ES - I made this into two log cakes, and gave one to my neighbour to take for afternoon tea with a new mum. She said how lovely it was and that everyone went back for seconds. I used 3 pears, but it only made about 1 cup of purée so I added some apple purée I had in the freezer. It was an easy cake to make, I love anything with fruit in it.
