Pear & ginger cakes

MAKES 6 PREP + COOK TIME 1 HOUR 35 MINUTES

60g butter

⅓ cup (90g) golden syrup

⅓ cup (75g) firmly packed brown sugar

¼ cup (60ml) buttermilk

1 egg

1¾ cups (235g) gluten-free self-raising flour

¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

2 tablespoons crystallised ginger, chopped finely

POACHED PEARS

3 Beurre bosc pears (540g)

1 cup (220g) firmly packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 POACHED PEARS Halve unpeeled pears, leaving stalks intact. Combine sugar, ginger and 2 cups (500ml) water in a medium saucepan over high heat; cook, stirring until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil; add pears, simmer, covered, for 15 minutes or until just tender. Cool pears in syrup. Remove pears from syrup and place on several layers of paper towel to drain. Simmer syrup for 20 minutes until thickened; cool.

2 Preheat oven to 160°C (140°C fanforced). Grease a 6-hole Texas (¾ cup/180ml) muffin pan.

3 Combine butter, golden syrup and sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat; cook, stirring until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Remove pan from heat. Whisk in buttermilk, then egg. Sift flour, bicarb and spices over; stir until combined.

4 Spoon mixture into pan holes. Press a pear into the centre of each hole. Sprinkle with crystallised ginger.

5 Bake cakes for 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into a cake comes out clean. Leave cakes in pan for 5 minutes before carefully lifting out onto plates. Serve drizzled with pear syrup.

Suitable to freeze. Not suitable to microwave.