Upside Down Pear Cake from the Wood Fired Oven

Many of us will remember making a Pineapple Upside-down Cake at school – our recipe gives this classic sponge a bit of a twist. It’s delicious served on its own at tea-time or with a dollop of Devonshire Clotted Cream for an indulgent pudding.

We made this in our Bushman Santorini Oven but it can easily be done in any Wood Fired Oven.

So, invite your friends over and get cooking – you can see David make it on this week’s #woodfiredweekly here.

Upside Down Pear Cake from the Wood Fired Oven – Ingredients

2 pears – cored and thinly sliced

For the caramel:

50g caster sugar

30ml water

30g butter

1 tablespoon rum

For the cake:

125g soft butter

125g caster sugar

125g self raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground mixed spice

Upside Down Pear Cake from the Wood Fired Oven – Oven state, equipment etc

Well heated oven and floor – 5 Mississippi

Door on

Saucepan and loose-bottomed 22cm cake tin (lined with baking parchment)

Upside Down Pear Cake from the Wood Fired Oven – Method

1. To make the caramel put the water and sugar in a saucepan and put it into the oven until the sugar has melted and is simmering – do not stir until sugar has dissolved completely. Let the sugar turn a good caramel brown colour and then add the butter and once that has melted add the rum. Obviously the sugar will be hot so don’t put your fingers in to see how hot it is. Just trust us on this one – we’ve done the putting your finger in to see and yes it was hot. Hot enough to numb the said finger tip for a few months…. Also the butter is likely to make it all spit a bit so stand well back when you are adding it and make sure your arms are covered with your gauntlets.

2. Pour the caramel into the base of the lined cake tin and then place the sliced pears in an overlapping pattern on top.

3. To make the cake mixture simply mix all the ingredients together until smooth. You can do this by hand in a bowl or in a food processor. Spoon this mixture on top of your caramel pears.

4. Cook in the oven with the door on for about 30-40 minutes. The floor of your oven should be about 190C – if it is too hot then put your cake tin in another oven proof container to raise it up a little from the floor.

5. Check after 15 minutes. If the cake is getting too brown then cover it with a piece of foil.

6. The cake is cooked when a skewer stuck into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

7. Leave in the tin to cool for a few minutes before you turn it out.

Upside Down Pear Cake from the Wood Fired Oven – Alternatives

At this time of year you can substitute the pears for apples or plums and add cinnamon instead of the ginger and mixed spice. In the summer months use peaches or nectarines with finely chopped rosemary or thyme for a delicious alternative. And do try it with caramalised bananas – served with honeycomb ice-cream it’s sensational!

Upside Down Pear Cake from the Wood Fired Oven – Wine Sugestion

Thanks to Suzie of Michael Sutton’s Cellar for this wine suggestion –

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