I foolishly forgot to include a recipe for the this wonderful pear cake in my last post so here it is. The recipe comes from Patricia Wells’ “The Provence Cookbook” which is among my favourite books of recipes. There is a common link between the cookery books that I use most and that link is the absence of recipe photographs: this book stays true to that ethic.
THREE PEAR CAKE from “The Provence Cookbook” by Patricia Wells
Ingredients
Spring form pan or loose bottom cake tin 9”
Cake
0.5 cup all purpose flour
0.3 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
0.5 tsp fine sea salt ( I leave this out)
0.5 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs lightly beaten
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp eau de vie poire Willian
0.3 cup yoghourt
Grated zest of one lemon
4 x large pears, peeled, cored. Cut lengthwise into 1/16’s
Topping
0.5 cup sugar
1 large egg lightly beaten
1 tbsp eau de vie poire William
Grated zest of one lemon
1/Preheat oven to 180C. Butter and flour cake pan.
2/In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt and stir to blend. Add the vanilla, eggs, oil, eau de vie, yoghourt, and lemon zest and stir until well blended.. Add the pears and stir to thoroughly coat the fruit with the batter
3/Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake pan and place it in the middle of the preheated oven. Bake until fairly firm and golden; about 40 mins.
4/Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the sugar, egg, eau de vie and lemon zest and stir to blend. Set aside.
5/Once the cake is firm and golden, remove it from the oven and the the topping mixture on top of the cake and return it to the oven for a further 10 mins.
6/Remove to a rack to cool. After 10 mins, run a knife around the edge of the pan and release the cake from the pan, leaving the base under the cake.
Ah yes! Thank you for posting. Great recipe…a keeper.
I make it so often…it’s a favourite of ours..
I hope you got that beastie trying to get at your tart! Very nice out of focus blue gauze cage BTW 😉
Between you and me, MD, as long as no one is listening….I lifted him from another picture of mine:)
ROFL – that fly will want a royalty 😉
🙂
Thanks for this recipe. I’ll file that away for pear season and purchase the appropriate plonk. Might be time to purchase that book too. ( thank you for the link to the second hand copies… forgot to thank you earlier.
Poire William is a wonderful eau de vie….apart from being a very good digestif, it also works very well in any cake or tart with pears.
It has been on my lust list for ages and never turns up in the duty free airport shops, requiring a larger investment and a good deal of discipilne too.
Pears are appearing frequently on our table right now and this is just one more way to use them. It’s always fun to try your recipes.
If you have a springform pan it makes life much easier with this recipe…
Good to know.
On ‘vacation’ or not: book in transit – had never heard of it and was rather thrilled by all the comments! ‘Tis the fourth one I believe I have bought second-hand on your recommendation: my bookshelves are naturally not in agreement 🙂 ! But less than $US10 together with postage . . . can’t wait for it to arrive and make it my bedtime reading . . .
We just had to buy more book shelves as well:)
I have three Patricia Wells cookbooks, but cannot wait to try this pear cake recipe!! Thanks for posting!!
She has to be one of my favourite cookery writers. I like the fact that she not only writes her own recipes but also gathers together recipes from restaurants and friends that she visits. Many thanks for the visit:)
Roger, you are so kind to reveal and share this glorious recipe, thank you so much, you made my season
Enjoy, Cornelia:)
Lovely picture! ❤ I myself love cooking books with pictures! Does that make me shallow? 😉
My copy of that book is totally falling apart!
I can imagine…mine’s heading the same way:)
O-O-O-O-O-O I like that lemon zest! Nice Recipe!
,,,,it’s a very good recipe…trust me:)