Pears, a most perplexing and petulant fruit; one day they are hard enough to knock someone out at 100 paces, the next they are the fruit equivalent of a tumbling toddler - soft, squidgy, bruised and in need of immediate attention.
And so it was that the 2 pears that had been ripening gradually in our fruit bowl, suddenly accelerated towards fruit fly Heaven and were caught at the very last moment.
Too soft for poaching in red wine or lemon and cinnamon scented sryrup, too little space in the freezer for a granita, so they headed into a cake. And, quite frankly, I think this is the best cake of 2020, so far.
120g butter
120g soft brown sugar
90g marmalade - I uised home made, but if you don't have homemade, try to use one that is not overly sweet.
2 eggs
120g self raising flour
4 tsp of ground ginger (more or less to taste)
2 large ripe pears, cored and chopped (no need to peel, although you can if you wish. Mine were beyond the point at which peeling was an option)
Heat the oven to 170ºC and grease a 1lb loaf tin
Beat together the butter, sugar and marmalade until very light, then add the eggs and beat again, as hard as you like.
Fold in the flour and ginger and finally, the chopped pears.
Spoon the mix into the loaf tin and bake for around 40 minutes, until a skewer poked into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
If the top of the cake is browning too quickly, cover with a piece of foil, baking parchment or a discarded butter wrapper.
Leave aside until the tin is cool enough to handle without an oven glove and then turn the cake out onto a cooling rack.
When cool, dust with icing sugar and tuck in.
Whilst nice on its own, I reckon this would also make a good dessert with ice cream, whipped cream or yogurt.
Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2020 ©
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