Honey pear cake and oversupply

This post came about because of an over supply of two things.

Pears and honey.

So I created a honey pear cake.

Makes sense, right?

I was lucky enough to receive another delivery of free pears last week (I spoke about the first delivery here.) I’m currently trying to find more ways to use these babies up, because I’ve eaten about 50, poached close to a dozen, given away what seems like bagfuls, and I’m still left with a bowl of them which are threatening to go bad on me.

I really dislike the idea of wasting them. What does everyone else cook when they’ve got too many pears?

This cake is great for under ripe pears, which my pears were when they first arrived. You boil them up to soften them and bring out those beautiful pear-y flavours, then you mush them up and make them the basis of your cake.

You also use them in place of any dairy (ie butter or milk), so this cake is like a giant health cake…sort of.

Honey pear cake:

• 3 under-ripe pears, cored and peeled
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 ½ cups almond meal
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 2 tbsp honey

Honey roasted pears:

• 1 pear, very thinly sliced
• 2 tbsp honey

Dice your pears. Pop your diced pear, water, 1 tbsp of sugar and lemon juice into a medium sized saucepan. Cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, until the pear is soft and the water has boiled down to a small amount of syrup. Take off the stove to cool.

* If your pears are ripe, skip straight to this part of the recipe. *

Preheat your oven to 180° and grease a 20cm round cake tin. I also lined the bottom of my tin with a round of baking paper.

Mix the almond meal, and sugar, then add the vanilla and eggs.

Mash your warm pears and until there are no lumps remaining. Add the pear puree to the cake mixture. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes.

This cake will be very moist – I tried to show this in the pictures. It’s a beautiful, dense cake that retains so much liquid that it needs no accompaniment. If you do wish to serve it with something n the side, try a small dollop of freshly whipped cream, or do as I did and top with honey roasted pears.

For the honey roasted pears, simply spoon half of the honey over a baking tray lined with baking paper and then lay your pear slices out, overlapping slightly. Drizzle the tops with the rest of the honey, then pop them in the oven at 180° for 10-15 minutes, turning them over half way through baking.

Arrange them on your cake while still warm so that they’re nice and pliable. Serve once the cake and pears have cooled slightly – this cake is especially nice with a nice black darjeeling tea.