Pear and ginger cake

The only problem with BOGOFs is that you have twice as much of something to use up quickly before it goes off. I succumbed to an offer on pears online and they weren’t very nice at all. Even when they’d ripened up a bit they were bitter and just not pleasant. I really didn’t want to waste them, so chucked a few in this cake (still have a few more to use up, not sure how, they must be cooked really). I’m happy to report that however yuck they were in their raw state, cooked in this cake and combined with ginger and brown sugar, they tasted amazing. The combo of pear and ginger is a happy and comforting one. This cake is especially amazing warm out of the oven, as such I would recommend it as a dinner party dessert actually, served warm with Greek yoghurt mixed with a little stem ginger syrup, which is what you see here. But don’t wait for a dinner party to make it! It’s an equally good cake to enjoy with a cup of tea, anytime. Try making it with apples too, maybe with cinnamon instead of ginger, that’d be great.

Serves: about 8-12 people depending on size of slice
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes
Total time: 55 minutes

Ingredients: 
450g pears (about 4 or 5)
115g butter
225g plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 teaspoons of ground ginger
115g brown sugar
3-4 tablespoons of milk
2 tablespoons of stem ginger syrup
2-3 pieces of stem ginger, chopped small
Pinch of salt

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and flour (or grease and line) a 23cm cake tin. 
2. Peel and core, then dice the pears. 
3. Mix flour, salt, ground ginger and baking powder. Then rub butter in to make mixture like breadcrumbs. 
4. Add pear, stem ginger and sugar. Mix. Add the milk and syrup. Mix well. If the mixture is a little dry add a further tablespoon of milk. 
5. Pour batter into the cake tin. Sprinkle with a little dark brown sugar on top if you so desire. 
6. Bake for 45 minutes. Test with s skewer before taking out (if it comes out clean it’s done). 
7. Serve with full fat Greek yogurt mixed with a little stem ginger syrup. With gallons of tea too, of course.