This Spiced Pear & Apricot Cake is perfect for the holiday season. No frou-frou cake stand is required at this unpretentious Christmas celebration. Instead, a wooden chopping board serves as a perfectly practical platter.
INGREDIENTS
Fruit Filling
- 6 pears with pips removed (use a melon ball scoop)
- 12 dried apricots softened in boiling water
Tip: We used Beurré Bosc (also known as Kaiser) pears which are particularly suited to baking.
Cake Base
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup plain yoghurt
- 160ml vegetable oil
- 80g melted butter
- 1/3 cup milk
- 2½ cups self-raising flour
- 1 cup muscovado sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Spicy Ginger Topping
- 3 large eggs
- 100g melted butter
- 3/4 cup muscovado sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 tablespoons chopped glacé ginger
Method
Set the oven at 170°C (Gas Mark 3).
Lightly butter a 26cm springform tin and line the bottom and then sides with a high collar of baking paper.
Wash and dry but don’t peel the pears. Remove the pips with a melon ball scoop. Slice the bottom of each pear so that it will sit flat and not fall over. Stuff the hollow of each pear with two soft apricots.
For the cake base:
Whisk the eggs in a bowl and then add the yoghurt, vegetable oil, melted butter and milk.
In another bowl, sieve together the flour, sugar and salt.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Whisk together all the ingredients for the spicy ginger topping.
Pour the cake base into the baking tin and arrange the pears to sit upright in a circle. Pour on the topping beginning at the outer edges of the cake and working towards the middle.
Bake at 170°C for approximately 11/4 hours or until a skewer comes out clean.
Recipe — STEPHANIE WOLHUTER-INGGS
Photography — Warren Heath
