Ingredients
200g butter, cubed
175g / ¾ cup demerara sugar
1/3 cup golden or date syrup
½ tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract
125g/ml or 1/2 cup plain yoghurt or buttermilk
2 free-range eggs, at room temperature
3 medium pears, washed & skins on
250g/ 2 cups plain flour
3 tbsp freshly grated ginger, or 1 tbsp ground dried ginger
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 pinch of ground cardamom, more if you like cardamom
Method
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Preheat the oven to 160C regular bake. Cut a baking paper circle for the bottom of a 20cm round cake pan or line a loaf tin (about 20cm long) with baking paper.
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Cream the butter, sugar, golden syrup and vanilla using an electric handmixer, or the paddle of a stand-up mixer until pale and fluffy. The add the eggs one by one and keep mixing. Mix baking soda & powder with the flour and then add half a cup at a time alternating with the milk/yoghurt, last add ginger. Whisk until everything is combined, but don’t overmix.
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Cut the pears into quarters and remove the cores. Cut into thin wedges.
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Pour the batter into your prepared cake tin/loaf pan. Arrange the thin slices of pears on top, tightly packing them in by standing them up in the batter.
For a loaf pan place the thinner top ends together with the bottom ends facing the edges, thus making a kind of roof.
For the round pan place the thin ends to the middle and the bottom ends facing outwards.
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Bake in the preheated oven for 70 - 90 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes or so, then turn out onto a cooling rack. Serve with vanilla icecream or whipped cream.