Monday 9 January 2012

Pear Pecan Cake


Americans cookbook writers certainly love their sugar and this recipe from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook is no different.  It's got 400g of sugar.  Maybe if you say it fast it won't sound so bad.  In it's defence, the cake has 3 pears in it so a slice could be classed as one of your 5 a day - again, say it fast.

There's something about the marriage of pears and pecans that work so well here so I wouldn't recommend substituting either.  The original recipe calls for 200g of icing sugar to fully coat the cake with a water icing but in an effort to be even semi healthy and to allow me to have a second slice with minimum guilt, I just mixed about 40g of icing sugar with a teaspoon or two of water and drizzled it on to the cake.  To be honest, this cake doesn't really need any icing.










Pear Pecan Cake, adapted from Magnolia Bakery cookbook.

Ingredients

Cake
400g plain flour
400g sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
250ml vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large pears or 3 medium pears, cut into 1 inch pieces
100g pecans

Glaze
200g icing sugar (I only used about 40g in the pictures)
4 tablespoons water

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C.  Grease and line a 24 cm (9inch) springform tin with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, sugar baking soda and salt.  Make a well in the centre and stir in the oil, eggs and vanilla extract. 
Stir in the pears and the pecans.  Spoon the batter into the prepared tin.
Bake for 60-70 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
Let the cake cool for the few minutes in the tin before removing it and allowing it to cool completely on a wire rack.
To make the glaze, stir together the icing sugar and water until you have a smooth paste.  Drizzle over the cake to fully coat.

10 comments:

  1. Oh, this looks so yummy! We just wont talk about the sugar ;) looks delicious, perfect with some coffee!~

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  2. Heather, Mum's the word on the sugar! It's such a delicious cake, we can easily overlook the unheathiness

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  3. Oh yum, I love anything to do with pear - this sounds so good! and I definitely think my making the magic bars was a sign that you need to whip out the Magnolia recipe book again! especially because guess what I'm eating right now - magic bar! I whipped up another batch tonight because they're just that good, that's twice in the space of 10 days I've made them - that's when you know it's a sign!! haha

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  4. Gem - I'm definitely a fan of Magnolia. They're the best ever when it comes to tray bakes. Magic Bars, here I come!

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  5. Another fan of Magnolia. This cake looks yum! Love your cake stand too :)

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  6. Cross My Apple Tart - Cake stand was €14 in Ikea (v the same one for €50 in Avoca), shh don't tell anyone!

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  7. That's brilliant! Did you get it recently? I got a lovely one for Christmas but I need more for prop purposes! Any excuse really!

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  8. CMyAT - Got it about 2 months ago. You should take a trip up, definitely worth it for cheap props

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  9. I'm so pleased I visited your blog after you left a comment on mine. I love it when I find a new recipe using oil instead of butter. This looks really good.

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  10. Hey Suelle. Thanks so much for stopping by. If you like pears you won't be disappointed with this cake

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