Ginger and pear cake recipe in association with Whitworths
Is it OK to have cake for breakfast? I’m not sure, but I just did it anyway, because I’m a grown-up and I can.
Ha!
The cake in question was the Whitworths’ ‘Scrummy Ginger and Pear Cake with Toffee Sauce’. I made it last night, so if tomorrow you want to be having cake for breakfast, here’s what you need to do:
Ginger and pear cake – Ingredients
- 150g ready to eat dates
- 250ml boiling water
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 150g Whitworths for baking fine caster sugar
- 50g Whitworths for baking dark soft brown sugar
- 125g butter at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 225g self-raising flour
- 1tsp ground ginger
- 3 ripe pears, peeled, cored and cut into 2cm pieces
For the toffee sauce:
- 100g Whitworths for baking light soft brown sugar
- 100g butter
- 150ml double cream
- Whitworths for baking twist and sprinkle icing sugar
Ginger and pear cake – Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4. Line a round 22cm cake tin with non-stick baking paper. (Or if like me you realise you don’t have any, greasing the pan and then covering it with flour works well.)
Coarsley chop the dates, place in a heatproof bowl and add the boiling water and bicarbonate of soda. Set aside to cool and then coarsley mash with a fork.
Beat the caster sugar and dark soft brown sugar and butter in a large bowl until pale and creamy. NB This takes longer if you can only find one of the whisks:
Add the egg and continue to beat for one minute.
Sift the flour and ground ginger into the bowl with the date mixture and pears. Using a large metal spoon fold until well-combined.
Pour your ginger and pear cake mix into the tin and bake for one hour ten minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Check the cake after 50 minutes and if the top is browning too quickly cover with a piece of foil and continue to cook.
For the toffee sauce:
Place the cream, light soft brown sugar and butter into a small saucepan over a medium heat. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve the warm cake with a drizzle of toffee sauce and decorate with icing sugar. Or simply on a plate with a cup of tea at 9am.
Delicious!