Earl grey, pear and walnut cake with ginger cream

Mon, 06 Oct 2014

It has been such a wonderful season for Pears! I have two pear trees and have never had so much fruit. In fact sadly one tree bore so many pears that the trunk has snapped! It was a lesson in planting a tree in the correct position and in this case I did not and planted it too close to a shaded wall so all the fruit was on one side of the tree and with this year's abundant crop the trunk could not take the weight.

Anyway all of those pears need to be used up, so I whipped up a few batches of pear and balsamic chutney, a good way to use up slightly under-ripe pears, but for the pears that were ripe I wanted to do something else and came up with this recipe which combines the fragrant Earl Grey tea with brown sugar, walnut and pears. A truly autumnal tasting cake, I brushed the top with my ginger syrup and added a couple of tablespoons of syrup to whipped cream. The ginger cream was sensational and I will definitely be using it again and again. It would also be fantastic with a blackberry and apple crumble.



RECIPE

EARL GREY, PEAR AND WALNUT CAKE

Ingredients

  • 240g butter
  • 220g light brown soft sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 210g self raising flour
  • 90g plain flour
  • 100ml strong earl grey tea, cooled
  • 2 pears, peeled and chopped into small chunks
  • 2 tablespoons sugar


  1. 1. Pre heat oven to 180˚C.
  2. 2. Place 60g of walnuts on a baking tray and roast for 10 minutes.
  3. 3. Butter and line a 23cmx13cm (9”x5”) loaf tin.
  4. 4. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy- this can take up to 5 minutes.
  5. 5. Measure out your flours.
  6. 6. Add eggs 1 at a time, if mixture curdles- don’t worry just add a tablespoon of measured flour after each egg.
  7. 7. Add flour and stir to combine until there are no lumps.
  8. 8. Add cooled tea, roasted walnuts and chopped pears and gently mix through.
  9. 9. Spoon mixture into loaf tin.
  10. 10. Sprinkle the top with remaining walnuts and 2 teaspoons of white sugar.
  11. 11. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes or until a cake skewer comes out clean.

Helen James

Helen James

when the cake has cooled slightly, lift out of the tin and place on a board and pour over ginger syrup and brush across the top of the cake.

Helen James

Helen James

When you are ready to serve whip up some cream and add 1 tablespoon of ginger syrup per 100ml of cream.

Helen James

This will keep well for a couple of days if you store in an airtight container.

Let me know if you make this and how you get on #consideredbyhj


Products used: Ginger Syrup3561113 Loaf Pan3530100 Wooden Board3512118 Pastry Brush3513124