Caramelised pear and cardamom cake.

I’ve hardly stepped foot in the kitchen today. In fact, I’ve been so tied up in establishing my freelance makeup artistry business that I got about as far as wolfing down a packet of 2-minute noodles for lunch.

I can’t believe I just admitted that…

…moving on. Let’s not talk about 2-minute noodles. Let’s talk about cake!

Caramelised pear and cardamom cake, to be precise.

Given the fact that I have been neglecting my kitchen today, I thought it was about time to share this beauty with you.

I actually baked this cake a good few months ago, for a friend’s birthday. I was after a recipe that was going to be relatively easy, but super impressive. (I like people to think I can bake, you see. In reality, I propably have more failures than wins…but you learn from your mistakes, right?)

This is actually an upside down cake. You begin with a caramel in the bottom of the cake tin into which you (neatly) nestle the pear slices. As it cooks, the pear slices become wonderfully soft and sweet. With a hint of cardamom throughout the cake, it has the most divine combination of flavours.

This cake is multi-purpose – perfect served for morning tea, afternoon tea or dessert. Or breakfast, even.

Imagine a warm wedge served with a dollop of thick, tart yoghurt. Oh boy, I think I need to go to the supermarket and buy some pears….

I found this wonderful recipe at EatLiveRun (one of my favourite food blogs!), however I believe it originated years ago from the LA Times test kitchen. It’s a keeper.

Caramelised Pear & Cardamom Cake

Borrowed from EatLiveRun. It was so perfect, I hardly changed a thing.

Ingredients

• 175g butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 pears, peeled, cored and sliced
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 & 1/2 cups plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup milk

Method

Preheat oven to 180*C.

In a non-stick pan, brown four tablespoons of the butter over a medium high heat. Add the brown sugar and cook until the caramel becomes smooth and creamy – this should take about 3 minutes.

Now you have caramel, yay! Pour it into a large round cake tin. Decoratively arrange your pear slices on top of the caramel in the cake tin. You can make it look however you like! Keeping in mind this will end up being the top of your cake, so do try and make it pretty! (Although a good dusting of icing sugar can help one of those situations…)

Sprinkle the pear with lemon juice and put aside.

Sift together flour, baking powder, cardamom and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together the remaining butter with the white sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla essence and then the dry ingredients, alternating with the milk. Fold together well, being careful not to overmix.

Spread the cake batter over the pears. Bake for about 40-45 minutes.

To remove from pan, wait until the cake has cooled (this will give you a better chance of flipping it out in one piece!), then turn out onto a plate.

I’m definitely excited to do some more baking in the coming few weeks. Stay tuned!

What is your favourite kind of cake?

This one would be high up on the list…but I don’t think there are many foods in this world that can beat a carrot cake. Just sayin’.

Xx Christie