Saturday 19 April 2014

Pear caramel upside-down cake


There were some sad looking small pears in my fruit bowl. They had been there for a while but somehow they hadn't ripened. Some people prefer crunchy pears to soft and sweet ones, but I thought it was time to do something about them. So here it is. "Pear caramel upside down cake" It's a simple cake, but it turned out rather pretty, so I decided to put this in my new post. I hope this inspires your Easter baking.


Ingredients  (for 19cm round cake tin)

  • 5 oz selfraising flour 
  • 5 oz caster sugar
  • 5 oz butter or low-fat spread 
  • 1 tsp baking powder 
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 Tbsp milk 
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 small pears
  • for caramel: 3 oz granulated sugar + 3 Tbsp water

Method

To make the caramel sauce: 

Place the granulated sugar and water into a stainless steel pan.
Stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and there are no granules.
Remove the spoon and increase the heat.
Boil until a golden straw colour and immediately pour into a tin.

  1. Preheat oven to 180 °C.  
  2. Place chopped pears in the cake tin when the caramel is cool and set.
  3. Put all ingredients (butter, sugar, flour, lemon juice, vanilla, eggs and milk) in a bowl.
  4. Mix with electric whisk.  
  5. Pour the mixture on top of the pears.
  6. Bake in a pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes. When the cake cools down turn the cake tin upside down.