Pear upside down cake

23 July 2008

Basically today, we stayed home. There was no sign of the sun today, and this makes the weather very cold. However, that does not mean that we didn't do anything at home ... instead, our kitchen proved to be useful. Here's why:

For breakfast, mummy prepared delicious fried vermicelli noodles, served with sweet corn and sweet potato fritters. What a way to start the day!

Then, for lunch, nini bini cooked her famously delicious fish head curry. Good thing we bought the mackerels yesterday! Look at this picture, it looks and tastes delicious...

In the afternoon, mummy got busy again and baked a cake.. a Pear Upside-down Cake. It's her first attempt baking the cake, and it was successful. You can check out the recipe below.

Pear Upside-down Cake
(Recipe from Periplus Mini Cookbooks)

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons soft brown sugar
425 g can pear halves in syrup*
2 cups self-raising flour
125 g unsalted butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten

*Mummy used two fresh pears and substituted the syrup with a homemade one (water mixed with sugar).

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Brush a loaf tin with melted butter or oil (Mummy used a round cake tin and doubled the recipe). Line base and sides with paper; grease paper. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over base of tin.
2. Drain pears, reserving syrup. Cut pears in half, arrange over base of tin.
3. Sift flour into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre.
4. Melt butter and sugar in a small pan over low heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved; remove from heat. Combine eggs and reserved syrup.
5. Add butter and egg mixtures to flour. Using a wooden spoon, stir until combined; do not overbeat.
6. Spoon mixture over pears; smooth surface. Bake 50 minutes or until skewer comes out clean when inserted in the centre of cake. Leave cake in tin 15 minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool. This is important or the pears may not adhere to the cake.


Amazingly, after baking her cake, mummy went to her class at 6 pm. We sent her to her class despite the very cold weather!