Thursday baking - pear and ginger upside down cake

As we bake our way though A Treasury of NZ Baking...

Our sister Sarah is on holiday at the moment so she's helping us out with the Treasury baking this week, here's what she thought of the pear and ginger cake...

I'm a big fan of pears and ginger together and this cake caught my eye when flicking through the book. It looked like the perfect dessert for a cold winters night. Friends coming for dinner provided an opportunity to test it out.

Instead of the fresh pears suggested in the recipe, I used some that Becs had poached in red wine. Served with custard, the cake was delicious. It had a nice texture and the poached pears worked really well. I was worried that uncooked pears may have remained a little crunchy. I was, however, a little disappointed with the lack of ginger flavour. I had suspected this may be the case when I saw only 2 tsp of ground ginger in the recipe. If feeling like more of a ginger kick, next time I would probably use the tried and true Ruth Pretty gingerbread recipe as the base. Nevertheless, it was very simple to prepare and still very tasty.

Upside- down Pear Cake (Helen Jackson) - week 17

150g butter
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
11/2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger
50g butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 pears peeled and sliced into eighths

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line 20cm springform tin with baking paper.
Cream first measures of butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking powder and ginger and stir into egg mixture.

Melt second measures of butter and brown sugar together and pour over baking paper. Cover with sliced pears. Spoon cake mix over the pears. Bake for 4o minutes. Leave to rest for 5 minutes before inverting on to a serving plate. Serve with whipped cream, custard or caramel sauce.