Pear and gingerbread cake
It’s the weather for warm, sticky puddings and this cake hits the spot. All you need is a big jug of creamy custard to go with it. No need to cook the pears first and it’s not a cake you turn out of the pan like an upside-down cake so, once cooked, grab a spoon and dive in. It’s best eaten while still warm.
Ingredients
175g unsalted butter
175g light soft brown sugar
175g golden syrup
175g black treacle
175g wholemeal flour
175g self raising flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 level tsp ground ginger
2 large eggs
250ml milk
3 ripe pears, peeled, cored and sliced
4 pieces stem ginger in syrup, cut into pieces
Setup
Generously butter a large skillet pan, base and sides ( I used a 26cm pan). Set up your BBQ for indirect cooking at 160°C.
Method
1. First, put the butter, sugar, golden syrup and black treacle into a pan. Heat gently until it has all melted. You can do this on the BBQ. Leave it to cool.
2. In a large bowl, tip in the flours, baking powder and ground ginger. Beat the eggs into the milk and pour this into the flour mixture along with the cooled syrup and butter mixture. Beat with a hand whisk until smooth.
3. Arrange the pears in the base of the buttered skillet pan and dot over the pieces of stem ginger. Pour over three tablespoons of the syrup from the jar. Pour over the ginger cake mixture and place into your BBQ.
4. I cooked this in my Kamado Joe for about an hour. It should turn a lovely golden colour. Check with a skewer (it should come out clean) and the cake should start to come away from the edge of the skillet pan when cooked. It’s ready to eat straight away.
This cake would feed 8 people or more, depending on how big a slice you have.