Pear, Raspberry & Amaretto Cake
This cake came about as I didn’t have certain ingredients in the recipe at home. It was a pretty cake that I wanted to make, but I didn’t have this, or that and I didn’t want to go and spend money on booze… or quite frankly, leave the house. So I just used what I could find around the house to make the recipe work, and then BOOM. This baby was born. A damn, mighty fine tasting baby at that too. Something about the Amaretto that makes it incredibly moreish.
Editing these photos, I realised, some chunks of dark chocolate would have made this cake even better. Maybe when you make it, you should add some in 😉
Pear, Raspberry & Amaretto Cake
100g unsalted butter, chopped softened
165g brown sugar
2 eggs
200g yoghurt
200g self-raising flour
100g ground almonds
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
160ml Amaretto
7 firm pears, peeled
150g fresh or frozen raspberries
Crumble Topping
2 tbs self-raising flour
75g ground hazelnuts
¼ tsp ground cloves
100g cold unsalted butter, chopped
55g raw sugar
55g blanched almonds, halved, lightly roasted
1. To make crumble, place all ingredients except blanched almonds in a bowl. Using your fingertips, rub in butter until mixture forms small clumps. Stir in blanched almonds, then refrigerate until needed.
2. Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease a 26cm springform pan, then line the base with baking paper. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each addition is just combined. Beat in yoghurt until just combined. Sift the flour with ground almonds, bicarbonate of soda and ½ teaspoon salt over batter; don’t stir yet. Add Amaretto, then stir until ingredients are just combined.
3. Quarter pears, then, using a knife, cut out the core. Place pears upright around the edge of the pan to form a snug ring. (Use a couple of small glasses to hold the pears in place while you are positioning them; you may have a couple of pieces left over depending on their size.)
4. Spoon half the batter into the centre of the pan, dot with half the raspberries, then spoon over the remaining batter. Level batter within pear ring; batter will spread between the pears when the cake is baked. Scatter over crumble, also scattering between pears. Bake for 30 minutes on the bottom shelf of the oven. Cover with a sheet of baking paper to prevent over-browning, then bake for a further 30 minutes. Scatter over remaining raspberries and bake for a further 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
5. Cool cake in pan for 2 hours. Serve warm or at room temperature with cream if desired.
angela@mykikicake
Such a beautiful looking cake, and I can imagine it tastes lovely as well.
Padaek
Looks wonderful – love the quartered pears around the sides looking like towers – actually, the whole cake looks like a big open sun flower. 🙂 Ooh – dark chocolate in it would be lovely too.
Bryan
You described it perfectly… it does look like an opened sunflower!! I wouldn’t have thought of leaving the stems of the pears on, which gave such a pretty effect. Mmmmm…
Gourmet Getaways
Looks good enough for me! I will perhaps try with and without dark chocs. Thanks for sharing!
Julie
Gourmet Getaways
Irene
That’s one gorgeous cake! Love the moody captures, I bet it tastes lovely with or without the chocolate mmm
Helen (Grab Your Fork)
Yum! Love a cake with a crumble topping! And I reckon dark chocolate would be an awesome addition too 🙂
Laura (Blogging Over Thyme)
The light in your photos is just spectacular! And this cake looks amazing. Love the pears on the outside border, such a clever idea. Do you use a photo filter? Just curious! Thanks!
Vanny @Nessy Eater
Love how the pears look like they are protecting the crumble center 😀
kellie@foodtoglow
What a beautiful cake! I do something kind of similar but not in any way as stunning as this. Really lovely. I saw this on some Russian blog post where something of mine was featured (without permission!).
msihua
Wow! Spectacular. I love the fact that you used chunks of pears as the shell. Brilliant!
Winston
Yaaaaaaay cake! I’ve honestly never seen any cake like it — how clever! I love crumble elements on anything, desserts or savoury dishes. My kinda cake. Caaaaaake.
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef
This cake has everything I love. Cake, crumble, fruit – it’s a winner, m’dear!
Iron Chef Shellie
<3 Thank you lovely!
Mardi
This looks beautiful and delicious! Everything I love in a cake (including yoghurt!) 🙂
@mardic7
This looks beautiful…and delicous!
Everything I love in a cake (including yoghurt) 🙂
Jess Jo
I would love to bake this cake – it looks absoloutely gorgeous! I just love your photography.
Question: Can I substitute Amaretto for espresso coffee?
Iron Chef Shellie
Thank you very much Jess <3
Why not give it a go!