Tea Poached Pears, Ginger and Banana Cake

The pears have been calling out at me for the past 2 weeks, they’re too old for munching but are perfect for a cake. There is also an over-ripe banana sitting in the fruit bowl waiting to turn black. Well, frugality aside, the cake is nice and spicy with the addition of ginger and treacle.

Ingredients

2 cups water

2 medium Packham pears, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cored

2 Earl Grey teabags

4 tbsp raw sugar

1 vanilla pod, halved and scraped

70g butter, melted

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 ½ cup self raising flour, sifted

½ cup almond meal

2 tbsp treacle

1 tbsp ground ginger

¾ cup brown sugar

1 mashed ripe banana

Method

1.          Boil 2 cups of water. Add the teabags, sugar and vanilla seeds and pod. Reduce heat to a simmer; poach the pears in tea for about 10 minutes, until just soft.

2.          Preheat oven to 170°C.

3.          In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients together.

4.          Add eggs, treacle, mashed bananas and melted butter to the dry ingredients and mix until combined.

5.          Add a bit of the cooled pear poaching liquid if it is too dry.

6.          Pour into a round pan and insert the drained poached pears in a circle.

7.          Bake for 35minutes in 170°C oven.

Can you spot the cat?

Coming Up in September

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting much in the last few weeks, I’m a bit overwhelmed with various stuff happening, and not having the energy to play much in the kitchen, or post for that matter. I still owe you faithful followers some recipes that I promised.

My brother did some SEO’s on my site recently, which has improved my Google ranking. Thanks bro! Sadly I haven’t produced a good enough photo this month to be published on foodgawker.

This month there will be more baking, probably with seasonal produce like pears, strawberries, apples, mangoes are trickling in, and banana prices slowly dropping. I still have those cream cheese in the fridge waiting to be turned into something delicious.

So stay tuned folks! I’d love to hear from you if you’ve tried my recipes, or like something that you might try one day, or are in possession of a recipe that you want me to try.  Please leave me a comment!

Real Men Do Eat Quiche

Who says real men don’t eat quiche? I like them, and the male species of the family eat them. It’s fast and it’s tasty. If you are out of time, use bought pastry shell, or make crust less ones. I made these mini quiches with toasted bread as the shells. They’re perfect as finger food. The boys had them in their lunchbox.

Ingredients (makes 8 in large muffin pans)

8 pieces of sandwich bread

2 eggs

2 pieces of bacon, diced

½ onion, diced

4 pieces sun dried tomatoes, chopped

1 stalk spring onion, chopped

½ red capsicum, diced

½ grated cheddar cheese

Margarine or butter to spread on bread

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1.          Preheat oven to 180°C.

2.          Use a rolling pin to flatten the bread, then cut off the crust into a nice square.

3.          Butter one side liberally.

4.          Place buttered side down in the muffin pan, press the centre down.

5.          Bake in the oven for 10 mins until the bread are lightly toasted.

6.          Mix all the other ingredients in a large bowl.

7.          Scoop into the bread cups and bake for another 15minutes.

Bread cups.