Roopa
A few weeks ago, my coworker posted a delicious looking Ferrero Rocher cake on my Facebook wall as a …subtle suggestion. Fortunately for them, I love suggestions! I liked the idea of the Ferrero and Nutella themed cake, but didn’t want a fully hazelnut cake. I poked around and found this delightful looking pear hazelnut cake from Style Sweet CA. I had grand intentions of decorating it with Ferrero chocolates, but as I started decorating I decided that simpler looked better. My poor coworkers will just have to unwrap the chocolates themselves to eat along with the cake. How tragic.
SPICED PEAR CAKE
INGREDIENTS
- 1.5 cups (~330 g) Bosc pears – ~3 pears*
- 165 g (1.5 cups) pastry flour, sifted
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. nutmeg
- 225 g (2 cups + 2 tbsp.) granulated sugar
- 111 g (½ cup) vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- ½ tsp. vanilla
DIRECTIONS
- Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease two 6″ cake pans with shortening and line with parchment paper. *
- Peel and grate the pears, and leave in a colander to drain. Use a paper towel to soak out some moisture
- Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and sugar.
- In a separate bowl, mix together oil, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla.
- Mix together the wet and dry ingredients. Do not overmix.
- Take another paper towel to remove as much moisture as possible from the grated pears, and fold into the batter.
- Split evenly between pans, and bake for 25 – 35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out dry. Rotate pans at 20 minutes.
- Let the cakes sit in their pans for 20 minutes, then let cool on a wire rack.
- Let cool completely before decorating.
Notes:
- I weighed the pears right after cutting them, so the 330 g is when they are still water-saturated.
- I inadvertently used 8″ pans, so the cake that you see in pictures is shorter than it should be.
NUTELLA BUTTERCREAM ICING
INGREDIENTS
- 224 g (1 cup) softened butter, unsalted
- 135 g Nutella
- pinch of salt
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 tbsp. milk
DIRECTIONS
- Cream the butter at medium speed until pale and creamy.
- Add in Nutella, salt, and vanilla and mix well.
- Add in icing sugar and mix together.
- Add milk or icing sugar as needed to get desired texture
Chateau Gateau 