Name: Walnut Pear and Espresso Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 2/3 C walnuts (or hazelnuts), plus extra to decorate; 3 eggs; 3/4 C plus 2 tbsp sugar; 1 tsp vanilla; 1 1/3 C all-purpose flour; 1 1/2 tsp baking powder; 2 tsp instant espresso powder; 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon; 3/4 C butter, melted; 4 Bosc or Conference pears, divided

It’s November (!) and we’re winding down the year of baking through The New Way to Cake by Benjamina Ebuehi. What a wonderful, tasty ride it’s been!

If you’re looking for amazingly unique cakes, you’ll want to pick up this cookbook and open your mind to new combinations of flavors.

Today I’m making the Walnut, Pear and Espresso Cake (called Hazelnut, Pear, and Espresso Cake in her cookbook).

You’re thinking, ‘Espresso with Pears…?” It’s almost like having a delicious little piece of this cake with a side of coffee. But the coffee is in the cake!

Oh, and if you’ve ever read many of my posts, you’ll know that hazelnuts and I have a good and evil relationship. Hazelnuts being the evil one. Long story, but in my younger years I once ate too many hazelnuts and to this day can’t be near them. Use them if you’d like.

What do I like about this cake? It’s tasty, soft and not too sweet. It uses one bowl, one baking pan and a few utensils. Stir the batter together and pour it in the pan.

The most time-consuming part of Walnut, Pear and Espresso Cake is dicing the pears. My Bosc pears were particularly juicy and slippery, so I had to be very careful with the knife. A cake decorated with a thumb is not a pretty thing.

I am so happy to be a part of Cake Slice Bakers and to have had the opportunity to discover this great cake cookbook. Again, the recipes have a few unusual ingredients, but there are substitutes you can use. Or find your local ethnic groceries, wander around, and experience something new!

Other Delicious Cakes from The New Way to Cake:

Walnut Pear and Espresso Cake

Yield: 8 slices

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

One-layer pear cake with a scent of espresso.

Ingredients

2/3 C walnuts (or hazelnuts), plus extra to decorate
3 eggs
3/4 C plus 2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 C butter, melted
4 Bosc or Conference pears, divided

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°. Spray the bottom and sides of a 9" round cake pan and fit a piece of parchment paper in the bottom of the pan.
Pour the walnuts or hazelnuts onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Toast them for 8 minutes, tossing half-way through roasting. Remove them from the oven and set aside to cool.
Turn the oven down to 350°.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until combined. Stir in the flour, baking powder, espresso powder and cinnamon and mix well. Pour the butter in the bowl and combine until smooth.
Peel, core and finely dice 2 of the pears, lightly patting them dry if overly wet. Chop three-quarters of the walnuts or hazelnuts. Gently fold in the pears and nuts, then pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Cut the remaining 2 pears in half and core (with the skin left on). Slice the pears thinly and place them in a nice pattern on top of the batter, overlapping the slices. Sprinkle the batter with the remaining nuts.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the cake is risen and rather firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. It will pull away from the edges a bit. Turn the cake out onto a rack (removing the parchment paper) and let cool completely, about an hour.

Notes

Tips and Stuff:

Original recipe uses hazelnuts, but use whatever nut you have/want.

After you pour the melted butter into the batter, stir it in well.

Careful when slicing the pears - they can be slippery.

To core the pears easily, use a melon baller to scoop it out.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 340Total Fat: 25gSaturated Fat: 12gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 116mgSodium: 256mgCarbohydrates: 24gFiber: 2gSugar: 6gProtein: 6g

Nutrition Values are Approximate

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is The New Way To Cake by Benjamina Ebuehi. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th – never before – we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

It is a new year and a new book – The New Way To Cake – and our choices for November 2020 were ~

Hazelnut, Pear & Espresso Cake

Hot Chocolate and Halva Pudding

Double Ginger and Grapefruit Cakes

The Cake Slice Bakers is such a fun group to bake with and besides the cake cookbook we’re going through in 2018 (America’s Test Kitchen – The Perfect Cake), once a month we can bake any cake from a book from a previous year. This month’s extra bake is from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman and I chose her Cinnamon Pudding Cake.

The recipe sounds so interesting! You make the batter, pour it into a well-greased 8-inch pan, then pour a really thin homemade caramel sauce over the top of the batter. After it bakes, the caramel sinks to the bottom of the cake, then you invert it so the caramel is now on top and drizzling down the sides. Excellent!

The texture of this Cinnamon Pudding Cake ends up soft and tender, kind of like a coffee cake, but softer. It has a deep cinnamon flavor and the caramel finishes off the cake perfectly. We both really love this cake.

I’m still not sure why it’s called a “pudding” cake, but I’m guessing it has something to do with the sinking caramel topping! Maybe it’s a British thing.

It’s a fairly rich cake, so cut the pieces a little smaller than usual. Also a scoop of ice cream really complemented the cake, but if you don’t have ice cream then grab a glass of milk or cup of coffee.