大象传媒

Pear and Rosemary Upside Down Cake

Leaf: Lettuce, Greens, Herbs, Weeds - Over 120 Recipes that Celebrate Varied, Versatile Leaves by Catherine Phipps (published: Quadrille Publishing Ltd)

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Another outing for my favourite ginger rosemary but if you don’t have it, regular rosemary will be just as good. This is probably my favourite autumnal dessert.

Serves 8
200g (7oz) butter, softened
200g (1 cup) golden caster (superfine) sugar
1 tsp rosemary needles, very finely chopped
100g (¾ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour
100g (¾ cup) dark rye flour
3 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
Sea salt

For the topping
5 tbsp butter
100g (½ cup) light soft brown sugar
Needles from 2 sprigs of ginger rosemary or normal rosemary
2–3 pears, peeled, cored and sliced into wedges

Preheat the oven to 170ºC (340ºF/Gas 3).
To make the topping, smear the butter over the base of a 21cm (8½in) cake tin or ovenproof frying pan. Sprinkle on the sugar and the rosemary, then arrange the pears on top.

Next, make the sponge. Beat the butter, sugar and finely chopped rosemary together until very soft, pale and well aerated. Mix the flours and baking powder together with a generous pinch of salt. Add the eggs one at a time to the sugar and butter, adding 1 tablespoon of the dry ingredients with each addition, then gently fold in the remainder – be careful not to overwork the mixture.
Spoon this over the pears and spread evenly.

Bake in the preheated oven for around 50 minutes, until the sponge is well risen and springy to touch. It should be a deep, rich brown. Run a knife around the sides just to make sure the cake will come away, then upturn it onto a large plate. Serve hot or warm with cream.