vegetarian
Baking with unusual whole grain flours and unrefined sugars is not only great for your health: it’s also a great way to add depth and flavour to cakes, biscuits and pastries. Amaranth flour has a sweet hay-like aroma that nicely complements the strong spices and various sweeteners in this moist pear cake. It’s also high in protein, lysine and fibre, so you can have your cake and eat it too!
Ingredients (makes 1 cake)
60g panela or rapadura sugar
130g butter, chilled
2 Tbsp golden syrup or dark coloured honey
2 pears, peeled, cored & cut in 2 cm thick wedges
100g raw sugar
1 whole egg and 1 egg white
125ml kefir
75g light sift wheat flour
50g amaranth flour
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch ground ginger
pinch sea salt
40g almond meal
thick cream, to serve
Method
- Preheat oven 180°C and line an 18 cm springform cake tin with baking paper.
- Sprinkle panela sugar over the base of the cake tin. Cut 50 g of butter into slices and arrange evenly on top, drizzle 1 Tbsp golden syrup over and bake for about 5 minutes, until melted. Swirl together with a spatula. Arrange pear pieces on top as a circular fan, with thin stalk end pointing to the centre.
- Beat remaining butter with raw sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and white and beat to combine well then mix in kefir. In another bowl sift together flours, baking powder and spice. Add salt and almond meal then carefully fold dry ingredients into wet: make sure everything is combined but don’t overmix! Transfer batter to cake tin in increments, taking care not to disturb the pears.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes then invert, drizzle with remaining golden syrup and cool on a wire rack.
- Serve with thick cream.
