sunday morning sleepover cake
03.11 This past Sunday morning I woke early thinking about what to make the gaggle of girls sleeping in Lula's room. The past few weekends we have been in a pancake rut. I thought about making an apple ginger cake but didn't have apples. After rummaging around I came up with a few pears and a whole lot of mint and basil left from last week's shoot. The combination of basil and pear sounded good to me, so I set out to make a cake. When the girls finally staggered out of Lula's room around noon the cake was waiting. I brewed them some fresh mint tea and suddenly it was a perfect non-pancake breakfast for a perfectly gorgeous Sunday.
Basil Pear Cake
2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup of light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
12-15 large basil leaves roughly torn
1/2 stick of softened butter
2 pears
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 eggs
Sift the first 6 ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
Add butter, grated pears, torn basil leaves, heavy cream and eggs. ( I grated one pear and used a mandolin on the other to change up the texture. Set aside 1/4 of the second pear to mandolin some slices for the top of the cake )
Mix for a minute by hand.
Turn the batter into a well greased and floured baking pan. I used a 7 inch round. Shave the remaining quarter of pear on the top of the cake.
Bake for 45 minutes at 350.
Reader Comments (4)
Andrea,
These pictures are absolutely stunning, I can't stop staring at the one with the egg yolk! I hope i'll have some time to make this very soon, looks delicious!
Lisa
Basil and pears together! That sounds like an amazing combination, will have to try soon! Sounds like the perfect Sunday afternoon too.
the close up of the pear cake makes me hungry!! it seems delicious.
Wow, I would never have thought to try pears with basil! The cake recipe sounds super easy, too. I'll have to give it a try. :)