Upside down pear date sponge

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Upside down sticky pear & date cake

Serves: 10

Prep: 35 minutes

Bake: 40 minutes

Poached pears

  • 4 medium sized pears
  • 600ml water
  • 300g caster sugar
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • ½ lemon zest
  • 5 cloves

Cake batter

  • 240g chopped dates
  • 1.5 tbsp linseed/flaxseed powder
  • 320ml almond milk
  • 200ml oil
  • 185g brown sugar
  • 200g self-raising flour
  • 1tsp bicarb soda/bread soda
  • 1 tsp mixed spice
  • ¼ tsp ground clove
  • Dash vanilla

Caramel Sauce

  • 240g coconut cream
  • 165g dark brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp cornflour

Method

  • For the pears, add the water, sugar, lemon and spices to a medium pot and heat to dissolve the sugar.
  • Peel the pears and add to the warm syrup.
  • Bring to a boil for 10-15minutes or until the pears are soft.
  • Cut in half and allow to cool in the fridge.
  • For the cake, preheat your oven to 180C/160C fan.
  • Line a 9” round loose bottom cake tin with parchment paper and set aside.
  • Firstly add the dates, almond milk and linseed to a pot and cook for 5 minutes or until the dates are soft, set aside to cool slightly.
  • Once cooled, add the oil and mix through.
  • Into another bowl, add the flour, sugar, spices and bread soda, mix to combine.
  • To this add the date mixture and mix.
  • Taking the pears from the fridge, remove the seeds and slice each pear half in half again.
  • Arrange the pear slices around the base of the tin and spoon the cake batter on top.
  • Place in the preheated oven and bake for 35-40minutes.
  • Remove and allow to cool slightly and carefully turn over onto your serving place.
  • To make the caramel sauce, simply, heat the coconut cream, cornflour and brown sugar in a pot and cook for a few minutes until the sauce thickens up. Serve warm drizzled over the top.

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