JESSICA’S PEAR & GINGER BUNDT

My daughter Jessica once made a pear and ginger cake at school and I ended up eating the whole thing! I just had to base a recipe on something that irresistible.

Serves 10

225g (8oz) butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

140g (5oz) caster sugar

140g (5oz) soft light brown sugar

4 eggs

340g (12oz) self-raising flour 1tsp vanilla extract

3 balls of stem ginger from a jar, finely chopped

1tbsp syrup from the ginger jar ¼tsp grated nutmeg

½tsp ground cinnamon

½tsp salt 410g tin of pears, drained and finely chopped

Icing sugar, to serve

Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan 170°C/gas 5. Grease and lightly flour a 23cm bundt tin. Beat the butter with the sugars in a large bowl until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one by one, adding 1tbsp of flour and beating after each. Beat in the vanilla extract, chopped ginger and ginger syrup. In a separate bowl, mix the rest of the flour with the nutmeg, cinnamon and salt.

Fold the dry mixture into the wet mixture and then fold through the chopped pears. Pour into the tin and bake for 1 hour, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm with custard or cold with a cup of tea.