These cakes are so incredible, I make them every year and have a mini bundt pan just for them. That's how good they are! You poach Bosc pears in a sugar and spice syrup, cream together all the best things (butter, sugar, etc.) Bake it and get a magical parcel of caramelized sugar and butter with a moist crumb and loaded with juicy pears infused with star anise and clove. This recipe can be easily doubled, halved, etc.
Ingredients (makes 12 mini bundt cakes)
For the pears
472 ml cups water
1 clove
1 star anise
50g cup sugar
2 Bosc pears, peeled, cored and quartered
For the cakes
3 Tbs ground flax seeds
200ml milk of choice (I used oat)
1 Tbs apple cider vinegar
100g almond paste
100g sugar
115g vegan butter or margarine (softened and unsalted)
30ml golden syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
140g flour
2 Tbs cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
1. Make the pears by bringing a medium pot with the water, sugar and spices to a simmer. Add the prepped pears and cook until the pears are tender and can be easily be pierced by a fork. Take off the heat and set aside for later (if you aren't going to make the cakes right away refrigerate the pears in the remaining syrup).
2. For the cakes, preheat the oven to 325 F. Grease the mini bundt pan and chop the pears into small chunks. Prepare a large piping bag for the batter. This is not necessary but it speeds up the process!
3. Mix the ground flax with 100g (half) of the milk, this is important to do early on so that the flax can gel and become an egg-like substance, this should take around 15 minutes.
4. Mix the other half of milk with the vinegar. Rub the almond paste in with the sugar using your fingers or a paddle attachment on a stand mixer. Once it looks even beat in the butter, then golden syrup, vanilla extract and almond extract. Set aside and whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Mix the flaxseed milk and vinegar milk together.
5. Add one third of the flour mix into the butter mix, stir, add a half of the milk, mix, continue with this rotation until you finish (end with the flour mix).
6. Now working quickly, transfer batter to the piping bag and fill the pan a little less than half way, sprinkle a layer of pear chunks then pipe another layer of batter on top. Fill the pan and bake for 45-50 minutes if the spring back to touch or a toothpick comes out clean they should be done. You may need to cover with tin foil to prevent the tops from burning.
7. Let the cakes sit for 5 minutes before flipping them onto a cooling rack. Enjoy!! Keeps for about 4 days in an air tight container, can be frozen for 3 months.
Comments