The upside-down summer cake

message from Oct. 4th, 2009 :

To remember the sweets of the summer, baskets of ripe fruits and evening cocktails under the stars, nothing is better than a cake that melts in your mouth.

An upside-down pear cake,

is like a warm sandy beach, 

it's a rum baba which doesn't get drowned,

it's a ladybug lost in rosemary bushes,
it's a sweetness that makes me as delirious as a sunstroke.

Ingredients :

2 pears

100g sugar

1 / 2 cup water

2 eggs

100g brown sugar

150g flour

80g soft butter

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ginger powder

1 tablespoon rum

In a saucepan, combine sugar and water and melt over medium heat.

Keeping the heat, mix with a spoon for a ten minutes until the mixture thickens, but don't let it get brown. Remove from heat.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180 ° C and cut the pears into thin wedges.

In a bowl, break the eggs and add brown sugar. Whisk until the mixture whitens. Sift together flour, baking powder and ginger and add gradually to the egg-sugar mixture while mixing. Add rum. Cut the softened butter into small cubes and fold them into the dough. Mix.

Cover a square mould with parchment paper.

Place the pear quarters in the bottom of the mould and pour your caramelized glaze over. Pour the batter over the fruit, taking care to cover the entire surface to avoid the fruits from moving.

Bake 30 minutes.

When the cake has cooled, you can turn it upside-down in a platter and gently remove the baking paper.

What is good is that the cake will remain the same for two days without becoming wimpy because of caramel syrup and fruits. It really is excellent, but to accompany it, I would not recommend something too sweet. Instead, you'd better play rather with the more acid fruits or a simple sherbet.

Painting by J. W. Waterhouse, Dolce Far Niente, 1880.