James Morton's pear and vanilla upside-down cake
Recipe: pear and vanilla upside-down cake
I’m James. I was once on a show called The Great British Bake Off. Being on that show has afforded me the opportunity to write about what I like writing about. Like almost all of my living costs, this mostly relates to food and drink.
I tried this with parsnips on my first day on The Great British Bake Off, and although there was parsnip flavour there, it didn’t come through as much as I’d hoped. You can try it if you like: add 250g of grated parsnips after the flour and bake for a bit longer.
Ingredients
- 350g softend, salted butter
- 450g caster sugar
- Juice of 1/2 a lemon
- 4 pears, preferably Williams or Conference, peeled and thinly sliced
- 4 medium eggs
- 75g Greek-style yoghurt
- Seeds from 1 vanilla pod
- 260g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
Serves: 4 Difficulty: Easy Time to cook: 70 mins
Method
Makes one 9 inch cake 1 First, line the bottom of a 9-inch springform tin with baking paper, and then grease it well. Preheat your oven to 170C/150C fan/Gas Mark 3, and place a tray or piece of foil on the bottom to catch any caramel drips. 2 Prepare the upside-down bit. Make the caramel by heating 100g of your butter, 200g of caster sugar and the lemon juice together in a pan, stirring until melted. Pour onto the base of your tin and arrange the pears on top. 3 Into a large bowl, weigh 250g of butter and 250g of caster sugar. Using an electric whisk or a wooden spoon, beat them together until smooth. 4 Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then add the yoghurt and scrape in the vanilla seeds and beat them in. This is likely to curdle and don’t worry if it does. 5 Gently fold in the flour and baking powder using a large metal spoon, just enough to combine. If it isn’t at a dropping consistency, stir in a touch more yoghurt. 6 Carefully pour your mix onto your fruit and bake in the oven for approximately 40-50 minutes, or until golden brown and springy and a skewer comes out clean. 7 Leave to cool for at least 15 minutes before removing the sides of the tin (running a knife around the edge if necessary), then placing a plate or cake stand on top of it. Turn the whole thing upside down before carefully peeling away the base paper. Serve hot or cold.