Pear and Ginger Cake

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp (25 mL) unsalted butter
• 55 g (1/2 cup) ground almonds
• 3 eggs
• 125 mL (1/2 cup) milk
• 400 g (1-3/4 cups) caster (superfine) sugar
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) grated fresh ginger
• 250 g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
• 2 tsp (10 mL) baking powder
• 3-5 beurre bosc pears, cored and sliced lengthways
• icing (powdered) sugar

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F/Gas 4). Butter a round 20 cm (8 in) springform cake tin with 1 tablespoon of butter. Sprinkle in half of the ground almonds and shake them around so that they stick to the buttered cake tin.

Put the eggs, milk, sugar, ginger, flour and baking powder into a food processor or large bowl and process or mix to make a thick batter. Fold the pears into the batter and then spoon the mixture into the cake tin. Sprinkle the top of the batter with the remaining ground almonds and dot with the rest of the butter.

Bake for 1-1/2 hours, check to see if it is cooked through, remove and cool. Dust with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream.

Rice Pudding

A classic Greek sweet.

Ingredients

* 1.2 litres milk
* 1 cinnamon stick
* Rind of 1/3 of a lemon
* 100g short grain rice, rinsed well in cold water
* 2 egg yolks
* 125g caster sugar
* 3 tbsp flaked almonds, toasted

Method

Bring the milk to the boil with the cinnamon and lemon rind and add the washed rice. Lower the heat and simmer (stirring occasionally) for 30 minutes or until very soft. Mix the yolks with the sugar and stir into the rice, cooking on low heat for a few more minutes. Remove from heat and stir in almonds. Pour into individual bowls and refrigerate until cold.
To serve

We made with star anise instead of cinnamon sticks and omitted the almonds and it was great.

Serves 6-8.