Pear & Spice Slice

Tonight for Good Friday we are going over to Michael’s parents for dinner with the family so of course I offered to make a cake to take along. Seeing as how this was all arranged at the last minute & all the shops are closed today I had to make to with what was in the house. I has some pears sitting around that needed using so scoured all of my cookbooks & magazine cuttings & came up with the recipe from the Aug 2004 Table Mag. Luckily the only missing ingredient was sour cream which Michael was kind enough to do a 7/11 run for me to pick up. The cake mixture was very sticky & hard to spread out in the tin so I was a bit worried. No need though as the finished slice was delicious, Michael has already had 3 pieces & hopefully he will stop at that so there is enough for the family tonight, 9 of us in all!

Pear & Spice Slice

125g butter, at room temperature, chopped
¾ cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups (300g) self raising flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
¾ cup (185g) sour cream
2 tablespoons milk
2 pears, peeled, cored & sliced
1 tablespoon caster sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
icing sugar, to serve

Preheat oven to 180c. Lightly grease a cake pan (18cm x 28cm) & line base with non stick baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter & sugar together until creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition & scraping down side of bowl. Beat in vanilla.

Sift flour & spice together. Lightly fold into creamed mixture alternating with combined sour cream & milk, beginning & ending with flour.

Spoon mixture into prepared pan & smooth top. Arrange pears over top of cake & sprinkle with combined caster sugar & cinnamon.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until cooked when tested. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar and cut into squares to serve.