Spiced Pear Streusel Cake

For a change, I have made a cake for no reason other than that I wanted to make it. The cake in question is a Spiced Pear Streusel cake, with the recipe by Karen Martini of Mr Wolf fame (among other things) featuring in Sunday Life magazine earlier this year. I wanted to make this cake because the photo of it looked so good - all shiny, syrupy pear top. Now mine does not look as beautiful as Karen's, but it tasted pretty good.

It seemed to be popular at work too, which is good, because otherwise I could eat this cake all by myself. I think it would be perfect served warm on a cold winter's night with cream and custard; however, I served it cold for practical reasons. If you like fruity, nutty, spicy cakes with butterscotch-like topping, then you will like this cake.

To make it, you will need:

Topping

130g brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 large pears, cored and cut into 12 slices

Streusel

70g crushed walnuts
55g plain flour
55g brown sugar
55g softened butter
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves

Cake

110g butter, softened and cubed
150g sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
zest of one lemon
1 tablespoon dark rum
2 eggs
240g sour cream
200g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line the base of a 9 inch springform pan.

For the topping, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and sprinkle three quarters of the mixture over the base of the prepared springform pan. Arrange the pears on top of the sugar, then sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture and dot with the butter. Wrap the base of the pan in foil and place on a baking tray. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, then remove and cool.

Mix all of the streusel ingredients together in a bowl and rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers. Sprinke the mixture onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until crunchy, then remove from the oven and cool.

To make the cake, beat the butter, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and rum together with an electric mixer until thick and creamy. Beat in the eggs , one at a time, then the sour cream. Remove the bater from the mixer, and fold through the sifted flour, baking powder and salt until just combined. Finally, stir through the crumbled streusel mixture.

Pour the batter over the top of the pears in the srpingform pan, place on a baking tray, and bake for approximately one hour or until cooked through. Cool the cake in its pan for about 20 minutes before turning out onto a serving plate.

Ensure that you put something under the cake in the oven to catch drips, because it does drip, and you will end up with a sticky toffee-like mess to clean up if you don't. However, don't be put off by this - this cake is delicious, and well worth the extra precaution.