Recipe - Pear & Raspberry Cake

Ingredients

• 3 ripe pears
• 20g butter
• 4 star anise
• 4 whole cloves
• Maple syrup or brown sugar
• 170 g caster sugar
• 230 ml milk
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 100 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tsp Sambuca (optional; see Note)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1⅓ cups (200 g) plain flour 
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Punnet raspberries

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Peel 3 pears, chop and map out how you plan to present them in your round or square cake tin so you know if you have enough
3. Add to baking tray: 20g butter along with the pears, star anise, cloves and a light drizzle or either maple syrup or brown sugar. Bake until pears just cooked through, shaking tray occasionally so the butter and spices touch all the pears to infuse at some stage
4. Add to saucepan: the sugar, milk and lemon zest. Cook over low heat and cook for 3–4 minutes, stirring regularly, until the sugar has dissolved. Do not let the milk come to the boil. Turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla, olive oil and liqueur (if using), then let the mixture cool for 5–10 minutes.
5. In a mixing bowl: add the beaten egg, flour and bicarbonate of soda and whisk to form a smooth batter. It's normal for the batter to be on the runny side.
6. Add pears and raspberries to the batter
7. Pour the batter over the top
8. Bake for 30–35 minutes or until pale golden and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
9. Cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool at room temperature for 1 hour before cutting.
10. Serve just as it is.

Note

• For an alcohol-free version, replace the liqueur with milk.
• Next time might do the pears on the stove top to caramelise them. The cake was delicious, just may have looked prettier with the pears caramelized.