Christmas

ginger pear cake

November  1, 2009
0
0 Ratings
  • Serves one cake
Author Notes

this is a great cake for breakfast of afternoon tea. you can make it with or without the glaze. —sweet enough

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1/2 cup plus two tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon brown suger
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup molasses
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 2-3 firm pears
  • 1 tablespoon orange zest
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 3 coin size pieces fresh ginger, peeled
Directions
  1. heat oven to 350 degrees. butter a spring 9 inch spring form cake pan and set aside.
  2. sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
  3. peel, core and chop into bite-sized chunks the pears. melt one tablespoon of the butter in a saucepan over medium high heat and add the pears. saute until they just start to release their moisture and add one tablespoon of the brown sugar. cook until the pears start to brown and remove from heat. set aside.
  4. cream the butter and 1/2 cup of brown sugar together in a large mixing bowl. beat until light and fluffy. add the eggs, one at a time, and beat in the molasses, vanilla extract and orange zest. mix in half the dry ingredients and then 1/2 the sour cream. mix in the rest of the dry ingredients and the rest of the sour cream. fold in the pears.
  5. pour the batter into the pan and bake for 50 minutes or until the center of the cake comes clean when you insert a cake tester.
  6. while the cake is in the oven you can make the glaze. place the orange juice, ginger slices and sugar in a pan. heat until the sugar is dissolved and then simmer until the mixture starts to thicken, about five minutes. remove from heat and let stand. when the cake is out of the oven and cooled slightly, remove the pieces of ginger and spoon the glaze over the cake.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Lady Moronta
    Lady Moronta
  • mbtaylor
    mbtaylor

2 Reviews

Lady M. December 24, 2013
Overall, this cake is pretty good and moist, however, the molasses quantity overpowers all other ingredients. Other than that, pretty good cake with mint tea.
 
mbtaylor December 5, 2012
can you suggest a substitution for molasses?