Praise the Cake

Some days nothing seems to work out the way you planned. With food, however, different can be surprisingly pleasant. And today it worked out to become the highest-praised cake I have made so far. It was described as an adventure through all the different tastes and textures. It has fresh cranberry's and pear, toasted walnuts (from our own tree!) and a nice tang made by adding some orange zest. The balance of things is just great. A soft and moist cake, with a slightly crunchy top, and the cranberry's and nuts each adding their own flavours to chew on. Deffinately a keeper!

As to the mistake I spoke about: Double the amounts in the recipe were supposed to be baked in a 9" x 13" baking pan. So I recalculated it to fit a 20 cm round springform. Which is, as we all know, 4 forms of 10 cm. So then, how would that fit if you only have two, like I do? It does, but just. But the result is even better.

Orange infused Cranberry and Pear-cake

60 g all-purpose flour
60 g whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
130 g brown sugar
55 g butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 Tbsp orange zest, fresh if possible, really
1 pear, corned and thinly sliced
100 g cranberry's, fresh or frozen, roughly chopped
35 g chopped walnuts, toasted


Preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease the forms and cover the bottom with baking paper, if you have it.

Sift the all-purpose flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, and whisk it together with the whole wheat.
In another bowl, whisk together sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and zest.
Add flour mixture and stir just until combined. Gently fold in pears, cranberries and walnuts (As far as you can possibly be gentle with a batter this thick! Don't worry, it will be fine. Just be carefull not to overmix.)

Scoop the mixture into the forms, and smooth the top. Bake until a toothpick comes out mostly clean, about 35 to 40 minutes. Leave it for 15 minutes. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool.

Should serve 8, but that's without people taking second's (and third's...)

Muffins for a day like this

Not bad, for a first view-of-the-day. And I díd go out and about quite a bit. But by midday I had seen enough of it. It's cold outside.

When checking Anne's blog I discovered that there's a new flavor in Marabou Chocolate: Vinter! With ginger, cardamom and cloves. The sound of it makes me feel better already.

Alas, no Marabou shops around. But I do have some very nice pears that need a purpose...

Honey Gingerbread-muffins, with lots of juicy pear


2 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
1 Tbsp Orange zest, grated or chopped
180 g All-purpose flour
70 g Rye- or whole-wheat flour
1 heaped tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
a pinch of salt
large pinch of each: allspice, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom
2 eggs
100 g Sugar, I used a combination of brown and white
170 g Honey
1 Tbsp Coffee-granules in 3 Tbsp hot water
1 very large pear, diced, don't bother peeling

Preheat oven to 190 C (375F). Line muffin tins (you will need about 14 cups total) with paper liners and set aside.

Mix the Orangepeel and butter. Heat until the butter starts to sizzle, and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, cream together butter and egg's until light. First add honey and coffee, then the orange-butter and whisk until the batter is smooth. Add in dry ingredients. Only mix until no streaks of flour remain visible. Cerefully fold in the diced pear.

Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each just over 3/4. Bake for 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack.

I ate two of them right from the oven. The second one with a large spoon full of ice cream. The pear just tastes só good, together with the sticky honey and warming spices. I'm in love...