Jamie Oliver's pear and gingerbread cake
Jamie's in the kitchen to whip up a yuletide sweet treat to really capture the taste of Christmas, as he shows you his easy-to-make pear and gingerbread cake.
Ingredients
Serves: 16
Bayes
4 large eggs
200g dark brown sugar
200g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
200g ground almonds
100g dark chocolate (70%)
100g stem ginger balls in syrup
1 × 410g tin of pear halves in juice
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Rub the inside of a 20cm x 30cm roasting tray with olive oil, then line with a sheet of damp greaseproof paper.
2. Crack the eggs into a large bowl, whisk with the sugar and 200ml of oil, then fold in the flour, baking powder and ground almonds. Finely chop half the chocolate and all the ginger, then fold through the batter and pour into the tray. Reserving half the juice, drain the pears, slice lengthways and arrange on top, poking them into the batter.
3. Bake for 35 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack, carefully removing the paper.
4. Place the empty tray over a medium-high heat on the hob and pour in the reserved pear juice. Add a drizzle of syrup from the stem ginger jar, bring to the boil, then turn the heat off, snap in the remaining chocolate and stir until you have a simple chocolate sauce, which you can drizzle over your sponge. Great served just as it is, or with a scoop of ice cream, for pudding.