- Feel Good
- 25th Sep 2021
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- 3 minutes
September soul food: Sticky toffee pear cake
Sticky Toffee Pear Cake
This cake is a twist on everyone’s favourite comfort pud – sticky toffee pudding. This can be served hot or cold with sticky toffee sauce as a dessert, or as a delicious cake with a cuppa. It’s made for those chilly autumn nights that have us reaching for the blanket.
Serves 6
For the cake:
- 4 small pears
- 2 strips lemon zest
- 8 tbsp caster sugar
- 4cm chunk fresh ginger
- 100g softened butter
- 175g dark brown sugar
- 200g self raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 80g treacle
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 4 heaped tsp chopped stem ginger in syrup
For the sticky sauce:
- 25g unsalted butter
- 115g double cream
- 90g dark brown sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- Vanilla ice cream to serve (optional)
Method
- Peel the pears and slice the bottoms off to create a flat surface, enabling the pears to stand upright of their own accord.
- Place the peeled pears in a small saucepan that fits them snuggly and cover with cold water. Add 8tbsp sugar, the fresh ginger (roughly chopped into pieces), and the lemon zest. Place over a high heat and bring up to a simmer before turning down to poach the pears for around 10 minutes until the necks of the pears are tender when tested with a skewer but the main body of the pear retains a little bite.
- Remove the pears from the syrup and set aside to drain and cool whilst you prepare the cake.
- Preheat the oven to 170c/ gas 4. Grease and line a loaf tin with baking paper
- Cream the butter and 175g dark brown sugar using electric beaters until it has become light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition, adding 1tbsp of the flour along with each egg to help stop curdling.
- One the eggs are combined, fold in the treacle, then the remainder of the flour and baking powder, and the ground and stem ginger.
- Spoon the cake batter into the prepared tin then carefully add the pears so that their tops are poking out the top elegantly.
- Bake in a preheated oven for 45-50 minutes until the sponge bounces back when gently pressed and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into it.
- Leave the cake to settle in its tin for 5 minutes, before lifting it out carefully to cool on a wire rack.
- If serving immediately, begin the sauce. Place all the ingredients for the sticky sauce in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring regularly.
- The sugar should melt and emulsify with the cream to form a shiny, sticky sauce. Allow the sauce to bubble gently for a couple of minutes before removing from the heat.
- Serve the cake warm or cold with hot sticky sauce and ice cream. The cake will keep for 3 days in an airtight container. Sticky sauce can be made ahead and reheated when required but is best eaten within 2 days.
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