Pear and Ginger Upside Down Cake

Pear and Ginger Upside Down Cake

• 10 May 2010

It's been an eventful week but for all the wrong reasons. I took a rare sick day off last Monday and spent most of Saturday tucked up in my bed. The gym hasn't seen me in a week so I made a return today to reintroduce myself.

One of my workmates has been on holidays for the past month and returned  last week. I made a cake to welcome her back and to soften the blow that always accompanies returning to work.



Although you wouldn't know it from the weather it's officially autumn here so pears and apples abound. I decided to pull out one of my old recipes for an upside down pear and ginger cake. This isn't exactly the recipe I used but it's very close. I used hazelnut meal instead of almond meal and used cardamon instead of nutmeg. There is no cinnamon in my recipe and to ginger it up, I added 3 - 4 teaspoons of groung ginger and about 60 grams of chopped glace ginger to the mixture. I made the cake about this time last year but ignored one crucial step in the recipe.

I forgot to let the cake cool completely before turning it out. The cake fell apart as I turned it out onto the cooling rack. I still took the cake into work and it was polished off even though it looked a bit sad.

This time I let the cake cool for hours before turning it out to photograph. I still held my breath as I turned it out.....

Thankfully the cake came out cleanly. This cake is one best eaten the day it's made.

I didn't get to eat my slice for a few days and the cake had become more pudding like in texture. I decided to warm up the cake and served it with stewed pears and cream for dessert. Next time I'll try folding through some diced pear and make it into a dessert.

I'll be back midweek with some photos from the Sydney Finders Keepers Market so see you all then,

Jillian