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.