Sticky Pear & Ginger Cake
It has been one of those weeks where life throws you a curveball and you have to drop everything to catch it. The weekend arrives and with it, a chance to re-charge. Steve tentatively suggests that I make a cake, baking has always been a therapeutic process for me and normally has the ability to lift even the glummest of spirits, but I am not in the mood for anything complicated.
When I was a child my grandparents sometimes used to take me to visit one of my aunts. They would sit around drinking tea, putting the world to rights and I would become increasingly bored and desperate to go home. The only thing that made these excruciatingly dull visitations more palatable would be the arrival of thickly sliced, shop bought Jamaican Ginger Cake on the tea tray. My grandmother would rarely serve shop bought cake, so this was a revelation. Freshly opened, the cake was a squidgy welcome treat and the start of my love of ginger, and ginger cake especially.
A ginger cake should be damp, dark and sticky, there are very few more disappointing mouthfuls than a dry one. I also like mine to have a strong, spicy kick of ginger. The good news is that making a ginger cake is quick and uncomplicated, it is just a simple matter of mixing the wet and dry ingredients together and pouring it into the tin. As I am still experiencing a bit of a pear obsession, and pears love ginger, I decide to make this version which requires barely any more effort. It is more like a pudding than a cake, but you do need to use ripe pears. I am not sure that any cake could make everything better but in my case at least, there is always some solace to be found in the process, however simple.
Sticky Pear & Ginger Cake
Slightly adapted from a recipe by Annie Bell
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 60 mins
Total time: 1 hour 15 mins
Serves: 8
Ingredients
50g unsalted butter (plus a little extra for lining the tin)
100g light brown sugar
2 -3 ripe pears (I used British Conference), peeled, cored and sliced.
Cake
125g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 heaped teaspoon of ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 medium egg
125g light brown sugar
90g black treacle
125ml soured whole milk (add a few drops of lemon juice to fresh milk to create soured milk)
50g unsalted butter, melted.
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
Lightly butter and line the sides and base of a 20cm/7cm deep non stick cake tin with removable base.
Make the topping by melting the butter in a small pan, then add the sugar and stir for a couple of minutes.
Pour over the base of the prepared tin and smooth to cover.
Arrange the pear slices on top of the caramel topping.
Make the cake by sifting the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices into a bowl.
In a separate bowl mix together the egg, sugar, treacle, soured milk and butter.
Fold in the flour mixture and beat with a wooden spoon for 1 minute.
Pour over the fruit in the tin.
Place the tin on a baking tray and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes.
Invert the cake onto a plate or cake stand and serve warm with cream, or ice cream.