Gingered Pear Cake with Chocolate

This autumnal cake is perfect for when the days turn colder. It’s specked with lovely pears and spiced with warming cinnamon and fiery ginger pieces, perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. The batter owes its moisture to the addition of crème fraîche,

November 6, 2014

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Gingered Pear Cake with Chocolate

1 pear
175g flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch of salt
1 tsp ground ginger
110g butter, soft
120g sugar
1 packet vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
200g crème fraîche
35g crystalized ginger + extra to decorate
60g dark chocolate

For the icing:
40g icing sugar
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp milk

Preheat the oven to 170°C fan.

Peel the pear and cut into cubes of approximately 1cm.

Put the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and ground ginger into a bowl and mix.

Put the butter, the sugar and vanilla sugar into another big bowl and mix with an electric whisk until pale.

Add the eggs and mix again until smooth, then add the crème fraîche and mix until smooth.

Gradually add the flour mix and beat until well incorporated.

Roughly chop the crystalized ginger pieces and the chocolate and fold into the batter.

Grease a cake tin of approx. 21cm and pour half the batter in. Scatter the pear pieces over the batter and top with the remaining batter.

Bake in the preheated oven for approx. 1h and 10 mins – check if the cake is done by pricking the cake with a wooden skewer, if no dough sticks to it, the cake is ready.

Leave the cake to cool in its tin for 15 minutes, then remove and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Once the cake is cool, make the icing by mixing the icing sugar, ground ginger and milk into a smooth icing. Drizzle over the cake and decorate with crystalized ginger pieces. Leave the icing to set before serving the cake.

TIP: You can make this cake with apples instead of pears and replace the ground ginger with ground cinnamon.

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