Recipe | Silken pear cake

Barely any flour is used in this clever recipe, resulting in a mere whisper of a cake – fairy light, pale gold and studded with morsels of juicy pear

SILKEN PEAR CAKE

90g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
3 eggs
130g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla essence
35g plain flour, sifted
30g cornflour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder, sifted
3 ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut into 2cm dice
FOR THE CHANTILLY CREAM (OPTIONAL) 
300ml whipping cream
30g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste or essence

1 Preheat oven to 170C/Fan 150C/Gas 3. Grease the ring of a 24cm springform tin, then turn the base upside down, so it no longer has a lip. Place a piece of baking paper over it, then clamp the ring around it to secure.
2 Combine the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl, and whisk with an electric mixer on high speed until the mixture has tripled in volume.
3 Using a hand whisk, gently fold in the plain flour, cornflour and baking powder with a pinch of salt until you have a smooth batter. Pour in the melted butter and fold with the whisk until totally combined, tilting the mixing bowl to make sure you’re reaching right to the bottom, where remnants of the butter might be sitting.
4 Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, then scatter the chunks of diced pear evenly over the surface. Don’t worry if there are a few pieces peeking through the top of the batter.
5 Bake for about 45 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. The cake will balloon up when cooking, then collapse a bit after cooling, but this is entirely normal.
6 Cool completely in the tin before sliding a paring knife around the edge of the cake to release the ring. Carefully slide the cake onto a serving plate (leave it on the baking paper as the texture is very delicate). Serve with your choice of cream.
7 To make the chantilly cream, combine the cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl and whisk by hand or with an electric mixer until medium peaks form, being careful not to overwhisk.

Recipe from Poh Bakes 100 Greats by Poh Ling Yeow (Murdoch Books).

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Recipe | Pear & quince crumble with almond custard

You can make this with just pears if that’s all you have to hand, but quince adds a beautiful aromatic note. 

The quince needs to be poached first, to soften it; if your pears are unripe, add them to the poaching for the last 10–20 minutes, or until they’re soft. This recipe presumes ripe pears. The topping is as dark, complex and rubbly as the apple and blackberry one (page 47 of the November 2017 issue) is light and simple.

Serves 4–6
1 quince, peeled, cored and quartered
2 tbsp sugar
8 ripe pears, peeled, cored and quartered
2 tbsp apple juice
Juice of 1 lemon 

For the crumble: 
75g butter
150g spelt/rye flour
75g demerara sugar
100g oats
1 tsp ground ginger
100g almonds, roughly chopped

For the almond custard:
There are a few ways to make this, using the vanilla custard recipe (opposite) as your starting point. In summer you can infuse the milk with a handful of peach or nectarine leaves before you start on the custard: scald the milk with the leaves in it and leave to infuse while it cools, then strain and use the milk as per the recipe. For a cheat’s version, add a little almond essence once the custard is made, tasting as you add. And for a grown- ups-only version, add a shot or two of amaretto to the finished custard. 

 1 Poach the quince in a saucepan of water with the sugar for around 30 mins, or until softened. Slice. Meanwhile, toss the pears in the apple and lemon juice.
2 Preheat oven to 190C/Fan 170C/ 375F. Tip the fruit into a baking dish and pour over around 240ml of the quince poaching juice or some apple juice.
3 For the crumble, rub the butter roughly into the flour, then add the sugar, oats, ginger and almonds and rub them in a little, too. Sprinkle the mixture over the fruit and bake in the preheated oven for around 30 mins, or until the top has browned.

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