simple pleasures on the farm: spiced pear cake

oh this is the bees knees…

pears, cloves, ginger and warm citrus flavours…

a perfect cake to share on a chilly november day.

another new favourite!

i have so many apple and pear recipes collected.

i have wanted to try this spiced pear cake from linda lomelino for a while.

i was gifted her beautiful book on pies and was smitten.

spiced pear cake

i did change linda's recipe a little.

ingredients

200 g. (1 1/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp) all apurose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

125 g softened salted butter

200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar

zest from 1 orange

zest from 1 lemon

2 large eggs

150 ml (2/3 cup) crème fraîche or thick yoghurt at room temperature

5 very firm pears bartlett or bosc - i used bosc

powdered sugar for dusting

instructions

1. preheat oven to 350˚. butter and flour a 9 inch springform cake pan.

2. combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger and cloves in a medium bowl. set aside.

3. in a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, and zests until light and creamy, about 3 ish minutes. add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. stir in the flour in three additions, and the crème fraîche in two…beginning and ending with the flour…1/3 of the flour mixture, 1/2 of the crème fraîche, another 1/3 of the flour mixture, the remaining crème fraîche, then the remaining flour mixture.

4. pour (spoon) the batter into the prepared springform pan. smooth the surface with an offset spatula. cut off a little bit of the bottom of each pear so they will stand up straight in the batter. if you skip this step they will tip over. press the pears down into the batter, stem end up.

5. bake the cake on the lowest rack of the oven for 50-55 ish minutes. (my oven took longer.) start checking around 40 minutes…as you might need to cover the cake with foil if the pears are browning too much.

6. remove the cake from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then remove the sides of the springform pan. dust with powdered sugar before serving.

you are going to love this!