Gauss-Advent Calendar: Recipe of the month – Pear spice cake with raspberry glaze

Gauss-Advent Calendar: Recipe of the month – Pear spice cake with raspberry glaze

Ingredients:

Dry:

  • 1 ½ cups wheat flour 
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons Spekulatius spices (orange zest, lemon zest, ground cardamom, ground cloves, ground coriander and ground nutmeg)

Pears:

  • 3 large pears 
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • applesauce if necessary

Liquid:

  • ¾ cup maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Raspberry glaze

  • ¼ cup frozen raspberries
  • ½ cup of confectioners sugar
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tbsp water

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180 ºC. Line the bottom of a 20 cm round non-stick baking pan with parchment paper cut to fit.
  2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and stir well. Set aside.
  3. Peel the pears. Cut one of them into thin slices (avoiding the core) and chop the other two into large chunks (also without the core).
  4. Arrange the sliced pear in the prepared pan in any design you wish. Pour ¼ cup of the maple syrup over the pears. Reserve the rest.
  5. Put the pear chunks into the blender with 2 tablespoons water. Blend until it’s about the consistency of applesauce.
  6. Measure out 1 ⅔ cups of the pear sauce. If there’s not enough, add applesauce until you have 1 ⅔ cups.
  7. Pour in the pear sauce into the dry ingredients. Add the remaining ½ cup of maple syrup and the vanilla extract. Stir until combined.
  8. Carefully spoon the batter over the pears so that you don’t move them and change the design.
  9. Bake for 35-45 minutes, testing by inserting a toothpick in the middle. It’s ready when the toothpick comes out clean.
  10. Run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen any stuck on parts of the cake. Place a serving dish over it and invert. Loosen all the edges of the parchment paper and then slowly peel it back. If there is glaze left on the paper, scrape it off with a knife and smooth it onto the cake.

Raspberry glaze

  1. Add raspberries, 1 Tbsp of sugar, and 1 Tbsp water to a small sauce pan and turn the heat to high. Bring to a boil and boil the raspberries until they all burst- about 3-5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir. Immediately strain the raspberries so that the colored flavored liquid goes into a bowl. Make sure to press as much juice as you can out of the raspberries.
  2. In the bowl with the raspberry juice, add in ½ cup powdered sugar and stir. 
  3. If the glaze is too thick, you can add in almond milk 1 tsp at a time. 

What’s your favorite cake in winter? Share it with us!