Pear Cake for a Happy Birthday
Funny how the months seem to be slipping away from me lately. Things have been pretty hectic around here and I had a look at the blog and realised I hadn’t updated for (gasp!) two months. Plus, I forgot to post about the cake I made for my sister’s birthday- on the 19th of August. However, despite the apparent tardiness of my wishes for my sister’s happiness on her birthday, I still think it is worth posting anyway due to the absolute magnificence of the cake.
This cake uses a classic combination of pears and hazelnuts with one important difference- the pears are poached in marsala prior to making the cake. This small but important step takes this cake from the really good to the extraordinary in my opinion. I have had this recipe in my “to make” folder on my computer for many months just waiting for pears to come into season and when they did… boy was it worth the wait. The recipe is from Melissa at the Travellers Lunchbox (her picture is a lot better than mine, but that is to be expected- her pictures are always wonderful).
