Uncle Dave and Christin came for dinner tonight and so, in the interest of defending my claim that I do indeed love the lowly bundt cake, I decided upon a Pear and Ginger Bundt cake. While the pears in the market are not at peak yet, I was game anyway. Here is what happened:
PEAR AND GINGER BUNDT CAKE – adapted from Woman’s Day as seen on Huffpost Taste
3/4 cup water
2 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1 2″ piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
3 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 generous tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
zest of one lemon
1 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup light olive oil or canola oil
3 large eggs plus one egg white
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 medium bosc pear, grated (approx 1 cup)
3 tblsp minced crystalized ginger
Preheat oven to 350F. Generously coat a non-stick 13 cup bundt pan with melted butter and put in refrigerator for 15 minutes.
Bring water, 3/4 cup sugar and the ginger to a boil in a small saucepan. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes or until syrupy. Discard ginger slices. Cool the syrup completely.
Mix flour, remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and lemon zest together in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
In a separate medium bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, 1/2 cup cooled ginger syrup, the eggs and egg white and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients into the dry, blending just until the dry ingredients disappear. Stir in the grated pear and crystalized ginger.
Bake 50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes. If desired, brush hot cake with remaining ginger syrup and top with turbinado sugar.
The cake, which was served with Gifford’s Wild Blueberry Ice Cream tonight – because that’s all I had, got great reviews.