Pear Gingerbread (inspired by Domini Kemp's itsa Cookbook)

When I was doing a massive tidyup last week, I came across an old copy of BBC Good Food magazine & spent a happy half hour having a browse through it.  One recipe that really caught my eye was for a pear & ginger cake and when a copy of Domini Kemp's new itsa Cookbook arrived in the post with a gingerbread recipe, my mind was made up.   Believe it or not, I had never made gingerbread before, and Domini's recipe seemed scarily uncomplicated, so I decided to give it a go, with a view to using most of it as a thank you to my parents for letting me stay in their house yet again!  When I walked in, Lulu was there in her Halloween costume and immediately demanded to know when I was going to make "those delicious meringues" again.  She then polished off a lump of this gingerbread, offering her Nanny a fingernail sized piece in a token sharing gesture.  She's just so kind!

This recipe is a one pot wonder as you make it in your largest pot - no need for lots of bowls, just a whisk and a spatula.  I used a can of tinned pears in juice - just drain them well - as they're guaranteed to be the perfect texture for this cake.  Also, a very handy tip for measuring golden syrup (why didn't they teach us this in school...) is to weigh the can/squeezy bottle before you start, ladle the syrup into the pot & keep checking the weight until it's 200g lighter.  Simples!

Pear Gingerbread

200g Golden Syrup
150g Butter
100g Caster Sugar
1 Egg
100ml Milk
2 tbsp Ground Ginger
2 tsp Allspice
250g Plain Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1 can Pears, drained & roughly chopped
50g Demerara Sugar

Preheat your oven to 160/Gas Mark 3.  Grease & line a 2lb loaf tin or deep cake tin with baking parchment.

Gently heat the golden syrup in a large pot until runny.  Add the butter and sugar and continue to heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.  Now remove from the heat.

Beat the egg, milk & spices together and add to the golden syrup mixture using a whisk.

Pour in the flour and bicarb and beat untill fully mixed - this reminded me a bit of choux pastry, but without the intense arm workout!

Now add the chopped pears, give it a final mix & pour into the tin.

Sprinkle with the demerara sugar and bake for 50-60 minutes until a skewer comes out clean (the cooking time will depend on the tin you use - longer for a loaf tin...)

Let the gingerbread rest in the tin until cool, then remove and serve.  It won't last very long!