Brendan came home last weekend and a few days before hand Karina had decided he needed a cake since his birthday had been on the 15th. She leafed through *The Best of Baking (the one cookbook we couldn't live without) and hit upon their Pear Cream Gateau because it had a nice light whipped cream instead of heavy butter cream. It's as hot as the Sun here and with the added beauty of high humidity, the heat index is the like standing on Rigel. Just saying butter cream made us both feel sluggish. Plus, pears...pears are juicy, bright, and just the right sweetness for hot weather.
Back to the recipe. It called for a chocolate cake to be made, which Karina nixed right off the bat. She was unable to match chocolate with pears in her mind. No problem, I said, I'll just make a regular sponge. Then I started getting out all the ingredients I'd need otherwise, only to find I didn't have any blueberry preserves (which she wasn't too chuffed about either...pears, blueberries and chocolate do not live together in her culinary world), so I pulled out black currant preserves instead. I whipped up the cake, put it in the oven and went to whip up the cream with a little powdered sugar. As I was pulling the cream out of the fridge, I spotted a package of cream cheese and my brain said, "oh yeah, that dog'll hunt." I pulled it out, softened it in the microwave, added some powdered sugar and extracts, and folded the whipped cream into the whole mess.
Which is how we ended up with a cake that merely resembled the original because it had pears in the filling.
Pear Cream Cake
sponge:
6 eggs, separated
4 1/2 tablespoons lukewarm water
2/3 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups cake flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated dried orange peel
filling and frosting:
2 15-ounce cans pears, drained with juice reserved
2/3 cup black currant preserves
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon brandy extract
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract
12 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 - 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Grease a 9-inch springform cake pan. Preheat oven to 365 degrees**.
Place the egg yolks, water and half the sugar in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer for 5 to 10 minutes or until pale and creamy. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold in remaining sugar. Carefully fold egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt, then stir in the dried orange peel. Fold flour mixture into egg mixture. Turn the batter into the prepared pan. Smooth the surface and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool slightly in the pan and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. Wrap in plastic and allow to stand overnight before cutting into layers.
Dice the pears in 1/2 inch pieces and set aside. In a medium bowl whip the heavy cream together with the extracts until moderately stiff peaks form, adding powdered sugar to taste near the end. Stir together cream cheese and powdered sugar to taste in a large bowl until smooth. Carefully fold heavy cream into cream cheese until blended. Reassemble the cleaned springform pan used to bake the cake. Cut the cake into three layers and place one layer into the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle evenly with several tablespoons of the reserved pear juice. Spread the layer evenly with half of the currant preserves and then with 1/4 of the cream mixture. Sprinkle half of the diced pears evenly over cream. Top with the second layer and repeat. Sprinkle the third layer with several tablespoons of the reserved pear juice before placing on top. Cover cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate, along with remaining cream, for 2 hours or until cream is set. Carefully remove the cake from the pan and place on cake plate. Frost with remaining cream. You can get creative with piping and whatnot, but it's not necessary. Chill for 30 before serving to allow cream to set slightly.
This is by far one of the best tasting cakes I have ever made, and I've been making cakes since I was 13 years old.
*There are several cookbooks with this title. I am referring to the one by Annette Wolter and Christian Teubner any time it is mentioned in any of my posts.
**I used a light colored pan, for a dark colored pan preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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