I usually post these cake recipes on Wednesdays but yesterday I sat down to start editing pictures and writing and my computer kept dying. I had it plugged in but it would not charge, after a very frustrating few minutes I decided to leave it alone for a while.
After looking at the plug, I think my little Scarlett, being a busy one-year-old must have had the plug in her mouth and I didn’t know it and then plugged it into the computer. Ack!
So I switched to different cord and after a while it started working – yay! But then I had moved on with my day and gotten busy and I never got back to the computer to post this. So it’s a Thursday cake day.
Close enough right?
I’m just happy my computer seems to be working and I hopefully wont have to send it anywhere to get fixed. I don’t think there is an Apple store here…
Anyway. So this cake is one of the reasons I started going through this cake book. I mean there were several cakes I wanted to make but this was one of the ones that really peeked my interest.
I have a tiny little love affair with whipping cream. I love it. I pretty much always have some around the house, just in case. I mean you wouldn’t want to get caught wanting to make some delicious confection with no whipping cream on hand or a delicious cream sauce of some kind. Oh I just love the stuff.
I also now love this cake. I have to admit my icing did not turn out as I had hoped, but the rest of the cake turned out quite delightful. Especially with the addition of the poached pears.
I had the bottom layer of the cake on the turn table, and had add the filling frosting when I was thinking, maybe I should add something for a little pop of flavor…. my sister-in-law, Natalie was standing there watching me, so I asked her what she thought about me filling it with a raspberry filling.
She was not impressed with the idea.
So we thought for a minute and then Natalie said, “What about pears?”
Yes.
I love pears with desserts. However the pears were not quite ripe and therefor rather hard, so I decided they needed to be poached.
It was a good decision. In my opinion, they made the cake.
As far as the frosting goes, the cake recipe did have a recommended one so I decided to try making a whipped cream frosting. It did NOT work. I am not entirely sure what went wrong but it definitely was very wrong.
So I ended up with a vanilla, almond buttercream. It worked fine but I was really wanting something lighter, but at that point, after botching the first icing, I was all out of whipping cream (gasp!). Now I wish I had followed the recipe from The Joy of Baking website, as I think it would have a lighter texture than the buttercream.
So I am not going to bother adding a frosting recipe here, just do a basic buttercream if you like, or go to the link above and watch the video and make whipped cream frosting using vanilla extract as stated and add a 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract. That is what I plan to do the next time I make this cake, and I do plan to make this cake again.
FOR THE CAKE- 1½ cups sifted cake flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt1 cup chilled whipping cream
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
FOR THE POACHED PEARS - 1 barely ripe pear
- water
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat your oven to 350˚ Place the bowl of an electric mixer and the whisk attachment in the freezer and prepare two 6" cake pans (or you can double the recipe and use an 8" spring form pan) by smearing soft butter on the bottom and sides of the pans and then dusting with flour, tapping out the excess, set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and set aside.
- Grab the mixing bowl and whisk out of the freezer and whip the cream to soft peaks. Place in the fridge while you beat the eggs.
- Beat the eggs until thick and pale and add the vanilla extract and fold in the whipped cream.
- Very carefully sift ¼ of the flour mixture over the whipped cream mixture and fold in. Repeat until all the flour is folded into the cream.
- Pour into the prepared cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.
- Cool in the pan about 15 minutes and then run a knife around the edge to loosen and turn out onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.
FOR THE POACHED PEARS - Slice the pear in half and place in a medium saucepan, just cover with water and add the sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Bring to a boil and simmer about 15 minutes, until the pear is soft. Remove from the poaching liquid and cool until completely cool.
- Once cool, remove the seeds and slice very thinly. Ice the center of your cake and then top with ¾ of the pear slices, put the top layer of cake on that and finish icing the cake, topping with the remaining pear slices.
- Huckleberry Plum Pie - January 1, 2017
- Fresh Mango Sorbet - July 17, 2016
- Steak Caesar Salad - June 8, 2016
