I have always maintained that I am not a baker. I can bake things but not very well and my nature is somewhat averse to the required precision. However, recently and perhaps it’s the weather, I’ve been in the mood to bake. Whatever the reason, I’ve been inspired but am selecting recipes that aren’t overly complicated. Which brings me to my latest attempted, a delicious, yet simple, cake that is fragrant with cardamom and topped with lovely sliced pears.
Of the many food sites and blogs I follow on a regular basis, Food52.com is one of my favorites and this is where I found this recipe. It is the perfect cake to have with tea in the afternoon (or for breakfast if you want a sweet treat in the morning). And while I usually take baked treats to the office to share with my co-workers, I confess to keeping this cake all to myself and not sharing it with a single soul. And after this one attempt I’ve added it to my go-to recipe repertoire.
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Sour Cream Cardamom Pear Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
A simple cake that even works for breakfast. Who doesn’t love cake for breakfast?
Ingredients
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 medium pears
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar (or sugar in the raw)
Powdered sugar for serving
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan, line it with parchment paper. then grease the top of the parchment.
In a bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
In a separate bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground cardamom. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and sour cream until smooth.
With the mixer running, alternate adding the flour mixture and the egg mixture to the butter and sugar. (I started with one-third of the flour, then half of the wet ingredients, another third of the flour, the remaining wet ingredients, ending with the remaining flour mixture). Beat until just combined without overmixing. Pour the batter into your prepared pan.
Slice the pears thinly, about ¼-inch thickness (I kept the skin on the pear). Arrange the pears in a concentric circle, overlapping just slightly, over the top of the cake. Sprinkle the turbinado sugar evenly over the fruit.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes (it took closer to an hour in my oven), or until the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and a tester inserted into the center comes out cleanly.
Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
Before serving, using a fine sieve, dust the top of the cake with powdered sugar. And for extra decadence, serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or top with whipped cream.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Inactive Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Category: Cakes
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Calories: 394.2
- Sugar: 34.4 g.
- Sodium: 247 mg.
- Fat: 18.8 g.
- Saturated Fat: 12.4 g.
- Carbohydrates: 52.6 g.
- Fiber: 1.9 g.
- Protein: 5.3 g.
- Cholesterol: 90.2 g.
Keywords: pears, cardamom
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