Upside Down Pear Cake

Mr S and I made this cake recently. I can't tell you how delicious it is! Super Yummy. And Super Easy to make.

It is the first upside down cake I have made. The toffee syrup really makes it, but the pears are just delicious too. Pears rock!

Here is the recipe:

1 cup sugar
⅓ cup water
3 firm pears
2 large eggs
⅓ cup raw sugar
tsp vanilla essence
Zest of one orange
Zest of one lemon
100g unsalted butter, melted
1 cup self-raising flour

Method

Preheat fan-forced oven to 170C (190C conventional). Grease a 20-centimetre cake tin with removable base and line the bottom with baking paper. Put sugar and water in a small saucepan and warm gently until sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and cook until the liquid is a light caramel colour. Pour into the tin and swirl around to cover the base.

Peel, core and quarter pears and arrange on top of the caramel, with points facing towards the centre.

Beat eggs with raw sugar, vanilla, orange and lemon zest. Add melted butter. Mix in flour. Place spoonfuls of batter over the top of the pears and gently spread, so as not to disturb the pears.

Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes or until the cake is set in the centre. Remove from oven and turn out on to a plate while the cake is still hot.Serves 6

Cookie Monster... Where are you??

Mmmm... Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I've never made them before. But Mr S' has been watching Sesame Street and reading Edwina, The Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct by Mo Williams - two very different things - but both featuring chocolate chip cookies. He has been talking about them for weeks, so I thought it was about time we made some. The project filled in some time while waiting for lunch to cook today. He had alot of fun touching all the ingredients, mixing and rolling cookie dough. It also meant that I had a ready made second course! He is terribly excited about the finished product and they taste pretty good too.

I know there are probably a thousand recipes for them, but we used Donna Hay's recipe from Modern Classics Book 2. It's the volume that has all the baking in it- cookies, biscuits, slices, cakes, desserts, hot puddings, pies and tarts! I've made other things from it and it's good. Although I often find her cakes a bit dry and the oven times are too quick for my oven.



I have also started knitting Mr S a cardigan with a hood for next winter. (I know they're called hoodies, and I should be 'cool' and use the word, but I can't stand it. Don't know why). After a couple of false starts, fiddling around with different patterns and stitches, I am on my way and quite pleased with the pattern that is emerging.

I'm using Zoe Mellor's Robin Hood Jacket as my inspiration. The pattern is in Zoe Mellor's The Big Book of Kids' Knits 50 Designs for babies and toddlers. But this pattern is for 14ply Rowan Cork, which is unfortunately discontinued. Most 14plys are pretty bulky and heavy. Cork wasn't heavy because of its construction. But since I can't get Cork, and I don't want to use another 14ply yarn, I am using Naturally's Loyal. It's a DK weight, 100% wool, machine washable yarn.

The down side is that using DK means that I am having to do lots of pattern modifications to make the thing work. I have also ribbed the bottom and I'll probably rib the button hole band (maybe?). The Zoe Mellor pattern uses moss stitch. Still, so far so good. And I love the orange!