Upside Down Pear Ginger Cake

11Nov09

“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!” That’s me screaming with excitement as I left university this afternoon (an internal scream of course). It was my final exam of the year and I have never looked more forward to the end of semester than I have this year. When I decided to go back to uni part time coupled with full time work, I didn’t think it was going to be a breeze, but I didn’t think it was going to be as tough as I have experienced. I have learnt a lot in my studies over the last two semesters and have thoroughly enjoyed the weekly discussion with my peers, but I spent way too many weekends reading and studying at the library and fighting peak hour traffic on Tuesday nights to get to lectures on time. There were also too many nights where I had to come home after a full day of constant meetings, emails and headaches to complete an assignment late into the night. Suffice to say, Linda was not a happy girl!

Now that school is over, I finally have some more time up my sleeve! I’m looking forward to summer, going to the beach, catching up on reading and exploring photography more (my camera has been idle and gathering dust on my bookshelf). More time up my sleeve means more time with Z, friends and family, lazy days and just having more time to do whatever the hell I wish to. I’m going to start another blog with a my sweet friend Amanda too which is rather exciting! I will also get to spend more time baking and blogging, sharing more yummy recipes like this upside down pear and ginger cake. It’s sticky, it’s moist and has just the right amount of sugar and spice.

So three cheers for finishing school and celebrating with yummy cake! Hip hip hooray!

Upside Down Pear Ginger Cake

Adapted from a recipe found on Taste.

1 and 2/3 cups brown sugar

250g butter, melted

4 medium pears, cored, peeled and cut into 2cm slices

1 cup golden syrup

2 eggs

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

big pinch of salt

2 and 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

200ml buttermilk or sour cream

1. Preheat the oven to 160C (140C if fan forced). Grease and line a 23cm square cake pan.
2. Sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the base of pan. Pour 1/3 cup butter over the sugar and arrange the pear slices in a single layer over the butter and sugar.
3. In a large bowl, combine the remaining butter, eggs, sugar and golden syrup. Sift in the flour, spices, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Fold through the buttermilk or sour cream. Pour this batter over the pears.
4. Bake for an hour and half or until cooked through and tested with a skewer. Stand for 10 minutes before turning out. Serve warm or cold.

Filed under: cakes, food, fruit   |  24 Comments