Erin Fox
Sweet Treats
Inspiration for this recipe came from musing about which flavours best go with pears in the autumn. You can’t beat pear and walnut, or pear and cardamom, and funnily enough, these two also bond wonderfully with coffee. So why not make a cake combining all four! You need to be keen on cardamom to enjoy this cake. But if you find it too strong, then use just 10 cardamom pods instead of 15. Or you can leave the cardamom out altogether.Inspiration for this recipe came from musing about which flavours best go with pears in the autumn. You can’t beat pear and walnut, or pear and cardamom, and funnily enough, these two also bond wonderfully with coffee. So why not make a cake combining all four! You need to be keen on cardamom to enjoy this cake. But if you find it too strong, then use just 10 cardamom pods instead of 15. Or you can leave the cardamom out altogether.The cake will keep for three days wrapped up in baking parchment in an air-tight container.
For the cake:
225g self-raising flour
15 green cardamom pods
225g butter at room temperature
225g light soft brown sugar
4 medium eggs lightly beaten
2 tbsp coffee syrup — Camp or Irl
1 tbsp milk
50g walnuts
2 large ripe pears peeled, cored and diced
1 X 8-inch-square or 9-inch-round baking tin greased and lined with baking parchment
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Scatter the walnuts on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 8 minutes, giving them a shake half way.Remove from the oven and allow to cool before roughly chopping them. Wash the pears and then peel and core them. Dice into small squares and set aside in a bowl covered with cling film.
Pods
Slice open the cardamom pods with a knife and place the seeds into a mortar bowl. Grind to a fine powder with the pestle.Sift the flour with the ground cardamom into a bowl and set aside.Cream the butter with the sugar for five minutes until light and fluffy. Gently whisk the eggs in a separate bowl and with the mixer still running, gradually add the eggs to the butter and sugar, beating well after each addition.If the mixture starts to curdle, add two tablespoons of the flour mixture to rebind the batter.Once all the eggs are incorporated, gently fold in the rest of the flour and then the coffee syrup and milk.Fold in the toasted walnuts followed by the pear chunks.Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Insert a wooden skewer into the centre and if it emerges clean, the cake is done.Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.Slice into squares or triangles and enjoy with a cup of cardamom coffee.
Cardamom coffee
To make the cardamom coffee, gently crush two cardamom pods and place these in a warmed percolator or cafetiere. Make the coffee as usual and leave to brew for a few minutes before plunging and serving.
Scoop a dollop of cream on top.