Pear & Ginger Upside Down Cake

The pears in our garden are just coming into season now, and they seem to be the perfect cooking pear. We have only been here two years, and last year there were only a handful of pears which were not looking too good. But, this year, after a good prune last autumn, the tree seems to be thanking us with a bountiful supply of pears which I have got lots of plans for.
My husband and I both love ginger, and it goes quite well with pear, so I whipped up this quickly today.

First I peeled and cored the pears, and softened them in a little butter and sugar melted together for about ten minutes. The pears are still a little hard, so needed this quick poach before cooking, as I think the sponge would have cooked before the pears had I not done it.

I put all of the sponge ingredients in my food processer. I also have a Kenwood Chef, and normally make my sponges in that. But having rooted this out of it's hidey hole in the cupboard, thought I would try out a sponge mix in this. It is so incredibly quick, literally takes about a minute or so to whip all the ingredients together. So I might use it a little more often if the results are good.

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A quick blast and we are nearly ready to pour the sponge mix over the poached pears.

I like using the silicone pans, but I still put a circle of baking parchment in the bottom of this one, as it's an upside down cake, I didn't want to take any chances.

The cake with some missing. What?! We have to try it you know, and it really lovely and light. The sponge has a fabulous texture, and the ginger gives the sponge a nice kick. Mmmmm.

A close up of the sponge, with the pears just peeking out on the top. Chopped stem ginger added into this would be gorgeous, and if the pears were cut into halves a halved cocktail cherry could be put into the hollow to add a splash of colour. Very retro!

     Pear & Ginger Upside Down Cake
   

4 - 6 Pears

150g Self Raising Flour

150g Butter or Margarine

150g Sugar

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Ground Ginger

1 Tablespoon Chopped Stem Ginger (Optional)

1 Tablespoon Ginger Syrup from Stem Ginger Jar (Optional)

1 Tablespoon Milk

Approx 35 minutes 180 c

Peel, core and quarter or halve pears.

*If the pears are ripe line a greased dish with a layer of baking parchment, and sprinkle with a tablespoon of soft brown sugar, and add the pears with the cut sides down.

*If the pears are hard, put 30 grams of butter and 30 grams of brown sugar in a saucepan and heat until the sugar has melted and simmer the pears on a gentle heat until they are part cooked. About 10 minutes, then put into a greased and lined dish.

Put flour, butter, sugar, eggs, ginger, and ginger syrup (if using) into a bowl.

Whisk on high speed until soft and light in colour .

Fold in milk and chopped ginger

Pour sponge mix over pears, and cook for approx 30 minutes.

Mint Jelly

I love mint jelly. I could eat it on everything, and sometimes I do. I have a feast of it, in sandwiches, meats, on the side of my plate with a curry. Anytime, anywhen as far as I am concerned with Mint Jelly. So. I bought the River Cottage book of preserving, and also Val Harris'  fabulous book  Easy Jams, Chutneys and Preserves from the fantastic and incredibly helpful allotment growing website, and set to.

First,  you need mint, and a good lot of it, which luckily I have in my garden, oh and apples, lots of them too, which luckily, I also have in my garden.

The great thing about adding the apples is, you don't have to core or peel them, nope, it all goes in and adds to the tang of the jelly, Mmmmm.

Mint and apple together looks so good, and smells divine. I used three different types of mint here. Apple mint, which is soft and fluffy, spearmint, which is not a strong flavour, but adds a nice menthol fragrance, and peppermint, which gives the jelly the mintiness (is that a word?) that I require in a mint jelly.

Bubbling nicely away in the pot, but it was a little thick, and as this was the first time I had ever made it, I wasn't sure if I should add more water. So I didn't.

Then I popped it all into the jelly bag, and hung it from my kitchen cabinet to drip. Well, I waited and I waited, and a day later there was probably an inch of juice dripped out. So I consulted my books, and the wonderful people on the allotment website, who suggested that I reboil, with more water, so I did, with the result that I had a lot more juice come out, but still not pints, but heyho anything is better than nothing in my view.  After boiling up the dripped juice with the appropriate amount of sugar, I had a gorgeous jelly, to which I added more chopped mint, and then popped it into jars, all two of them!. But like I said, anything is better than nothing. And, it tastes gooooood.

This is the finished product, which has already been gotten to by the Mint Jelly fanatic, (that would be me!), and for my first go at it I am very pleased, but do think I maybe boiled it a little too long, as it is quite solidified, more than jellified.

Forgotten photos and birthday cake.

Well, I have been busy baking this month, but, I haven't taken many photos of what I have baked. Forgive me, I am new to this blogging business, and by the time I have remembered my camera, it's too late!
Here is a little list of what I have made though, just to start making your mouth water.
Millionaires Shortbread, Iced Fairy Cakes, Plum Crumble, Apple Pie, A birthday cake (that I do have photo's of), and other stuff that I can't even remember. Ok, OK, I'm really sorry, I will try harder to take more photos, I promise!
Here is the birthday cake I made for my niece. I tried making the shoebox cake again, and although I am getting the hang of the gumpaste shoe, I have real trouble getting the cake straight, and the icing level. Grrr.
I used the Mud Cake, and Ganache recipe from the Planet Cake book, and I have to say, YUM! The cake is rich, dense and moist, and very very moorish, and with the ganache on the top. Well, I could have stuck my face right into it, and been in cake heaven. But, I didn't, although I did inhale, (along with my sister) the cut offs.

Gumpaste Shoe & Shoebox Cake

My friends 40th (shush) birthday is coming up soon, and I am going to make her a shoebox cake, with a bright pink shoe. I made the shoe yesterday following a template I got from here. The tutorial was very easy to follow, and I just decided what how I wanted to decorate it when it was done. This is the first shoe I have ever made, so very pleased with it, and I know it won't be the last. This cake is going to be a little cake, the shoe is only about 7" long, although I know you can make the templates bigger if you want a bigger shoe, but love making small cakes, so I will update this posting as I continue with this project.

Well, the above is the finished article. I have to admit totally rushed the cake and it shows badly. I made, iced and decorated the cake all in about 3.5 hours. In my defence, my husband has taken all week to tile my kitchen, (after work), and I only just managed to clear down the worktops whilst the tiles were setting to be able to do this.

This is my first shoebox cake, and I have learnt many valuable lessons for the future. I plan to make another one of these in a few weeks time, and will be a lot more organised.

Cherry Jam

My sister gave me just over a pound of cherries, she had frozen them whole, and although I did toy with the idea of a cherry mille feuille, I thought jam might be better and longer lasting.

The jam is boiling away merrily now in my new maslin pan. I have wanted a maslin pan for years, and even though I have scoured the second hand shops looking for one, I never found one, so I decided to treat myself to one from Amazon, as they had a very good deal on one.

Just potted the jam in one of my Le Parfait Jars, I love these, I don't have many, but I will, Oh yes I will! I know, I know, I didn't skim off the top, although I did add a knob of butter which seemed to disperse the scum, but when I potted it, back it came. Yet another lesson taught.

The finished article, all cleaned up, and ready to be eaten. I will probably make some scones for this, but on toast it is just perfect too.

Baked Doughnuts

I had a thought about making baked doughnuts, and it stayed with me for a few days until I had to do something about it. So, I rooted out my pan, still with the wrapper on, and trawled the internet looking for a recipe.
I found one that sounded quite good, no yeast, but eggs, and baking powder, so feeling hopeful off I went on a baking expedition. Below is the mixture ready for cooking, it is quite thick, like a good batter, and looks good.

When the first batch came out of the oven, I tossed them in a sugar and cinnamon mix, 3tsps caster sugar to 1 tsp cinnamon. They felt quite cakey, and smelt incredibly good. Here they are just out of the oven.

I also thought I would try out my new silicone cake tray, it only bakes six at a time like my doughnut one, but it is not supposed to need greasing.

Hmm, maybe a touch of grease might have helped, or a little longer in the oven for the bottoms to brown a tad more. Will try that next time. So, here are the finished items, they taste lovely, and I will make them again, I just obviously need to practise.

New Toys, and Colours

This is my new toy, and I love it!. It is called a sugarpaste gun, and it has lots of little discs which can be used to make lots of different shapes in sugarpaste, fondant, and gumpaste. I have only used a couple of them, to make ropes to go around my parents 50th wedding anniversary cake. I think I am going to have a lot of fun with this toy.

I always use paste colours for my decorating. I've found only a little tiny bit is needed to get a really good deep colour, and they are so easy to use. Pop a bit on a cocktail stick and dab it into your mixture, until you get the colour you want. Easy!

Along with the bourbon vanilla extract, these are the only ones I use. (so far). But, I have to admit to a passion for sprinkles. I love them, but it seems in England we are very limited to what we have. I know in the supermarkets we can get little tubs of assorted sprinkles, but I really want lots of different types.

A blogger whose blog I love (bakerella) is in America, and has the most amazing cake decorating store she goes to which has literally hundreds of different types of sprinkles, and decorating items. I know if I lived near that store, I would be broke, but I would have lots of beautifully decorated cakes!

Dragon cake

This was for my little ones birthday. I wanted to make a 3D cake, and learnt a lot from the experience, namely don't make the head from cake, as it will fall off!

I cut out all the scales from fondant, but with the amazing gift of hindsight, should have made them much thinner, as I spent about two hours cutting out each individual circle and layering them over each other, only to find later that day they had all slipped down the cake.
This caused me a bit of a problem which is very visible, in that I had to replace the scales, but as the crumb coat underneath was chocolate ganache it now showed on the scales and could not be covered up!

The cake was a chocolate Madeira, with chocolate ganache. The cake itself was very big, and when I tried to move it even more ganache squeezed through the scales, so I thought it was prudent to leave it where it was.

 It didn't seem to matter to the kid's much though, as the party sparklers coming out of it's mouth and nostrils seemed to capture their attention.

50th Wedding Anniversary Cake

This cake was for my parents anniversary. The bottom was fruitcake, which was made by my sister, and the top was sponge. I marbled the fondant, and dusted it with gold luster dust. My parents loved it.

Topsy Turvy Cake

This cake was a challenge. Again it was a birthday cake for the same friends other daughter, she was not having a party, so I thought I would try a mini topsy turvy cake. Hmm, quite a challenge too, but loads of fun. I love mauve and lime green together, and thought it would great on this style of cake. I had recently bought a fabulous book by Lindy Smith, (Cakes to Inspire and Desire), and she shows you the engineering side of these cakes in the book.


So, with a little trepidation, and some excitement at using my new 4" spring sided, loose bottom cake tins, I made the batter, and again tinted it violet, pink and white, and baked each cake. When done, I cut the crusts off, and tried to cut the cakes so they would sit well on top of each other without too much of a slant. That done, I crumb coated, and covered them with the fondant I had tinted. Again I covered them with cutouts, and made the toppers with gumpaste that I had marbled. This cake was also a surprise, and I wish I had a photo of her face when I walked in with it, she was quite emotional, and didn't want to cut it at all. She was persuaded to by her friends though.