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Cooking
Pear and White Wine Cake
·Peel the pears, cut them into quarters and cut out the cores. In a large (a wide, shallow one works well), mix together the wine, cane sugar and spices.
Slice the vanilla pod lengthways in half, scrape out the seeds with the tip of a knife and add them to the wine. Add the rest of the pod too, so it can infuse. Bring to a full boil until the sugar has dissolved.
Add the pears, lower the heat and simmer for about ten minutes. The pears should soften but not turn mushy. Lift the pears out of the wine syrup, leaving the spices in the pan. Turn up the heat to reduce the liquid a little. This will thicken the syrup, which is exactly what we need.
While the wine is simmering, score all the pears. Lay each one flat on a chopping board, cut side (where the core was) facing down. Make cuts across the width of the pear, not too deep so you don't cut all the way through. Space the cuts close together, fairly tightly.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Add the flour mixed with the baking powder.
Finally, stir in the cream and melted butter. Mix into a smooth batter. Fold in the grated chocolate at the end. Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
Grease a round cake tin with butter and dust with flour. Pour in the batter. Arrange the pears on top of the batter. If you have a few pear pieces left over, slice them and tuck them into any gaps in the batter.
Bake for 30 minutes at 180 °C. Now it's time for the wine syrup. After reducing, you should have about 150–200 ml left. Remove the spices from it. Pour the syrup over the whole cake, then return it to the oven.
Bake for a further 10–15 minutes at 200 °C. The cake will turn a beautiful golden colour, and the syrup will keep it wonderfully moist.
Here's a secret tip for you. If you want to take the cake to the next level, drizzle it with a little melted chocolate. Yum!