Sunday, November 7, 2010

Heavenly Cake - Swedish Pear and Almond Cream Cake

ב''ה

I was California Dreaming this morning with a slice of this lovely cake.

The delicious "almond gunk." I could not get almond past so I used marzipan. Thanks to Jennifer  for the tip!

I used Anjou pears. I would have preferred had they been softer.

Batter, stage 1.

Making my "ring" depression.

Fill with said almond gunk.

Layer the pears. Did I do this right? 

As you can see, the pears did not sink to the bottom as they were supposed to. Perhaps my almond gunk was to cold or perhaps the shape of the pan restricted them from sinking? At any rate, the almond gunk did not sink either.

Pop her in the toaster.

I  made this for the community service kick-off at a local girls High School. The cake on the left
 is a whipped cream cake. I also made a third cake, another Swedish Pear, so we could try it too! :)

Conclusions: Delicious! My wife felt that it was too much like a plain butter cake and the little almond pocket was to intense. Next time, she says, we should just add the almond gunk to the batter and mix it in. I dunno, I am perfectly satisfied with it.

9 comments:

  1. glad i could help you out!
    oh, what a bummer your almond gunk and pears didn't sink. at least it was delicious. i almost agree with mrs. mendy; i would have liked the almond flavor throughout the cake but i was thinking almond instead of vanilla extract.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Smile... you got the heritage cake pan!

    I think maybe the "spoke-like" placement of your pears is what kept them from sinking into the batter.

    I hope to make this cake tomorrow.

    :)
    ButterYum

    ReplyDelete
  3. My pears didn't "sink" very much either, but it was delicious. I used Solo pure almond paste in a can. I found it in a baking store. It has a nice texture. Good job!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mendy, I didn't know what I was doing but the difference was your pears are sideways and mine were lengthwise over the almond paste, which was probably less dense than the cake batter.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mendy- You cakes look gorgeous, and I agree with P/ButterYum. Especially after seeing everyone else's versions of this cake, it was the placement of pear slices (and size of the pear)that prevented sinking. My only failed to sink on one side, and it was the side where the pear slices were longer and more densely layered. Also, per the recipe I sliced my pears very thinly (1/8")and from the pictures it looks like some folks had much larger chunks of pear.

    ReplyDelete
  6. And again, I need to stop visiting everyone's site because one pan is more BEAUTIFUL than the next! And I have to agree the almond gunk is the best thing EVER!

    ReplyDelete
  7. ב''ה

    Thank you everyone for your kind comments and for helping me figure out why the pears did not sink!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Love the cake and your Heritage pan produces such a nice design. I also think I might add a tad of almond extract next time. I liked this cake as sort of multi-purpose, nice for brunch or tea/coffee get together in the afternoon. My husband liked it a lot too.

    ReplyDelete