I’ve clearly been bingeing a little too hard on The Great British Bake Off. A sick day last week resulted in a lacklustre spell on the sofa, iPlayering my little socks off, and I finally got round to giving it a go. I’ve been frantically attempting to catch up with the rest of the series ever since.
It’s got me thinking about flavours and different, more adventurous baking ideas a bit more seriously than I usually would. Then, home for the weekend, I happened to look out of the window and see pears falling from the tree in my parents’ garden, and an idea was born.
I don’t usually make up my own recipes – not when it comes to baking anyway. I’ve always subscribed to the philosophy that baking requires more precision than I’m capable of working out, and that recipes know best. Still, I was feeling inspired.
I poached the pears in red wine, then drained them and let them cool before popping them into the bottom of a cake tin. I made up a basic cake mix of butter, sugar, eggs and flour – a bit less of the latter than usual, to keep the texture moist enough to be consistent with the pears – and added some ground cinnamon and ginger. Fruit + cake mix = upside-down cake.
The result may not be the technically best bake I’ve ever done – it cooked slightly unevenly, and I was completely winging it in terms of oven times – but the warm flavours work together well, and it’s a nicely autumnal cake. I think I might go off-recipe more often.
More Salt, Please 
Leave a comment