Pear and ginger. Can there be a better combo? This cake has a fair few number of steps involved but is worth it (if you can be bothered) in my opinion.
What's the A to V?
Sesame seeds (here found both in the cake mix and the halva) are a good source of calcium, while pears contain vitamin K and potassium.
Ingredients:
40g butter
75g caster sugar
1 tsp of vanilla bean paste
The finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2-3 eggs, lightly beaten (use 3 if you end up with a lot of pear or the eggs are small)
75g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
30g sesame seeds (toasted until light brown and blitzed to a rough powder in a food processor)
4 ripe pears
50g of stem ginger in syrup, chopped (You can buy diced stem ginger in syrup from most supermarkets in the baking aisle)
A pinch of salt
50g of dark chocolate, melted
50g of halva, roughly broken into chunks (optional)
Yogurt, to serve (optional)
Method
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, and line a grease a cake tin.
In a small saucepan on low to medium heat, melt your butter until it’s browned and smells vaguely nutty. This process takes roughly 8 minutes. Once done, refrigerate for roughly 15 minutes (I just whack the saucepan in the fridge to save on washing up which is why a small saucepan is a good idea).
Peel, core and cut your pears into smallish cubes.Then in a large bowl, mix your butter with the sugar, lemon zest and vanilla. Gradually add your eggs to the bowl and beat.
Add your sesame seed powder, flour, baking powder, and a pinch of salt to the bowl and stir well. Fold in your diced pear and add in the chopped ginger, plus 1 tbsp of the syrup it sits in. If you’re using halva, stir about 20g into the batter. Pour the batter into your cake tin and drizzle the melted chocolate over the top.
Bake for 40 minutes, sprinkling the remainder of your halva on top at around the 30-35 minute mark. The cake should be moist with a few crumbs on the skewer/knife you use to test the bake. Pour a further tbsp of the ginger syrup over the cake, and serve hot or cold with a dollop of yogurt.