This cake is my introduction to the approaching Autumn (Fall) season. It is my favourite time of the year when the temperature drops and becomes noticeably cooler. The leaves boast from red to orange, next yellow and eventually brown. All those romantic colour notes speaks shades of happiness to me.
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Now let me welcome this plush, moist, and subtly spiced cake drizzled with pear syrup, studded with a sweetly fragrant poached pear, and finally dolloped with a swoosh of cinnamon cream cheese frosting. This feels festive, looks a little fancy, yet it’s fuss-free, no piping bags and no separation of eggs. It’s is my triple assault of Autumn bliss and unquestionably a great contender.
The weekend is looking good from here. 😉
I honestly couldn’t wait for the first leave to fall to start baking with some of my favourite spices for that fragrant, aromatic finish. Cardamom and cinnamon summon the essence of that homely feeling. The calendar may still refer to Summer days but it’s all pears and spiced cake in my home.
The cake is plush, moist, and gently fragranced with cinnamon and cardamom because they make such good flavour friends. You will often find them paired together in many sweet and savoury recipes.
I don’t often use wine in my baking, but the pears wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t poached in some red wine. Of course, you could use white wine if you prefer to maintain the pear colour. Honestly, this lovely cake recipe idea was born when hubby picked up red wine over the weekend, after our wine tasting event. I knew I had to do a little more with it. 😉
However, if you’re not a wine consumer, I would suggest using saffron strands to flavour and colour the pears. It’s definitely a beautiful alternative.
The cream cheese frosting is certainly not any cream cheese frosting. This one is sweetened with honey and seasoned with cinnamon, developing the flavours to another lever when you bite into the moist, buttery cake drenched in the pear wine syrup, the soft sweet fragranced pear, all smothered with this delectable cinnamon cream cheese frosting. It’s undeniably a mouthful of sensational tones.
Let’s get started.
POACHED PEARS, SPICED CAKE & CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
SPICED CAKE
POACHED PEARS, SPICED CAKE & CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
Ingredients
- 100 g butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1⅓ cup self-raising flour
- ½ cup inkomaas milk
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1½ tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180-degree celcuis
- Grease a 15 cm round baking tin. I used a fancy baking tin.
- Beat the butter and sugar with a handheld machine or large whisk, until light and creamy.
- Drop in the eggs, vanilla essence and continue to beat.
- Fold in the sifted flour, milk and spices until the batter comes together.
- Pour the batter into the greased tin and bake for 30-40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
- Leave aside to cool
Notes
In the meanwhile, start poaching the pears.
Poached Pears
Ingredients
- 3 ripe pears
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1½ cup wine
- 2-3 small cinnamon barks
Instructions
- Peal pears, leave the stem intact.
- Add the sugar, water and wine to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar starts to dissolve. Add in the pears and continue to stir every 15 minutes, turning the pears onto its other sides without damaging it. Cook for +- 45 minutes.
- Leave aside to cool
Notes
Now let’s make the cinnamon cream cheese frosting.
CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
Ingredients
- 1 cup fresh cream
- 6 tbs cream cheese (plain)
- 2 tbs honey
- sprinkling of cinnamon
Instructions
- Whisk cream cheese, cream, and honey together until smooth and creamy. I made mine a thick pourable consistency. You can add more cream or use less depending on the consistency you prefer.
Assemble:
- Place cake onto a cake place.
- Drizzle the cake with the red wine pear syrup.
- Place a poached pear on top of the cake.
- Pour some syrup over it.
- Next pour the cream cheese frosting over the poached pear and into the cake, lastly dust with a sprinkling of cinnamon.
- Enjoy!
