Pear Cake

I still love pears even after receiving so many.
Fresh pears?  You can't go wrong.

What I found is that there aren't that many pear recipes.
And I think I have tried most of them.

I liked this one because the pears were in the middle of the cake.
Different.  And I like different.

My family liked this cake.
Simple.
Tastes best, slightly warm with ice-cream on top. 
mmmmm......

Not so simple for me to make. 
The conversions were in metric,  +  I didn't have a few items, but I substituted.

**I did not have the 150 grams Self-Rising Flour. 
I used 1 cup all-purpose flour and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder.
For more info, please see...
http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-self-rising-flour-substitute-29318?scaleto=1&mode=null&st=true

**The recipe also asked for 150 grams (1/2 cup) ground almonds. 
I didn't have enough, therefore I used 1/4 cup ground almonds and 1/4 cup of slivered almonds.

*For the butter, to convert from metric to cups, I used the following link.  See below...
http://www.onlineconversion.com/cooking_butter.htm

*For the sugar, please see the link below for the conversions.
http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/sugar_amounts.html

*Also, I did not have Golden Caster Sugar, I used Granulated Sugar.

Therefore, the next time I bake this, it will be easy.
And there will be a next time. 
The next time I get pears, which will be hopefully next year.
:)

I got this recipe from...(see below)
http://thingswemake.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/pear-and-almond-cake/

The original post is from River Cottage.
http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/pear-and-almond-cake/

Pear Cake

300 grams butter (a little over 1-cup) + more for greasing the springform pan + 1 Tbsp for sauteing
250 grams granulated sugar (1-cup) + 1 Tbsp for sauteing the pears
*1 cup all-purpose flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder*
*150 grams (1/2 cup) ground almond*
4 large eggs, slightly beaten
4 medium-size pears, peeled, cored and slice into thin strips (that is what I did) or quartered.

*Butter the springform pan (medium-size) and also line with parchment paper.
(I skipped the part of the lining with parchment paper, and I regretted it.)

*With your sliced pears or quartered pears, saute' the pears with the
1-Tbsp of butter and 1-Tbsp of sugar until pears are tender.  Set aside.

*Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  (approx. 4-minutes).
*Slowly add the flour, ground almonds and slightly-beaten eggs.
(remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl and the bottom of the bowl, to ensure everything is incorporated).

**The batter should be thick like cake-batter.  I added a little bit of milk to the mixture because it was too thick for me to stir.  (approx. 1 1/2 Tbsp).
*Pour your batter into the prepared springform pan.
*Place the pears on top in a nice arrangement and pour the juices on top.

*Bake at 350F (175C) for approx. 75-minutes or until the knife comes out almost clean.
**It may take longer to bake (mine did) and make sure the cake is not wobbly and the middle rises.
**If you have to cook longer than the 75-minutes, I suggest you put foil on top of the cake to stop the cake from getting too brown on top.

*Remove from oven, and leave cake in pan to cool (approx. 10-15 minutes) before removing to cool completely on wire-rack.


***Please Note:   I always use salted butter and then omit the salt requested in recipes.
You should do what you feel is best.