pear and ginger holiday cake

So - we are on holidays. J has 6 days leave and we're staying at a friend's holiday house in Port Macquarie. Do you remember my mandarin marmalade from 2011? A four and a half hour drive from Sydney, the climate is glorious. I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt and it is the middle of winter!

The thing about holidays is that while there are two parents around there's more time to cook. I brought my Thermomix and we made nasi goreng for last nights dinner. Fortunately our holiday house has an oven (& a much better kitchen than my own at home).

Today I just couldn't help myself. I discovered an organic supermarket in town - Organic Belly - and grabbed some rapadura sugar (& organic teas). 

The two descriptors I like to read about a cake are "moist" and "fluffy." Incredibly this cake is both those things - light and fluffy on the top and moist with peary goodness on the bottom. 

I could only operate the oven as fan-forced so you may need to cook it for longer if you're not using fan-forced. I'd check it at 45 minutes and cook for longer, checking (with skewer) at 5 minute intervals. I doubt it will need more than 60 minutes. 

Here is my recipe for Pear and Ginger Holiday Cake.

ingredients

6g fresh ginger 

160g rapadura sugar

125g unsalted butter, diced

250g organic sr flour

1 tspn baking powder

2 tspn mixed spice

310g milk

1 egg

2 Beurré bosc pears, cored, peeled and diced

method

Preheat oven to 180°c. Line a 20cm round cake tin with greaseproof baking paper. 

Place ginger in the TM bowl sp 6/3 secs. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Add the butter and sugar. Cook at  90°c/5 min/sp 2. 

Add dry ingredients, milk & egg, mix speed 4, for 4-5 seconds until flour is just combined - to keep the result light and fluffy.

Add pear pieces, mix reverse sp 2/ 3 secs. 

Cook for 45 mins (fan-forced) and check from 45 mins for a non fan-forced oven. It probably won't need more than 60 mins.