Monday, November 8, 2010

RHC: Swedish Pear and Almond Cream Cake

Swedish Pear and Almond Cream CakeI'm back baking in real-time, after posting on baking I'd done in advance of three weeks of travel. There was the annual trip to exhibit at the ag. show, one day at home, my 9-day vacation at Disney World, one day at home, and a trip to Reston, Va. and Washington, D.C. for meetings. I'm glad to be home this week! The post will be short, though, because I'm still trying to recover my brain, lost somewhere in all that travel.

Cake of the week is the Swedish Pear and Almond Cake, a sour cream cake with a band of almond cream (almond paste, sugar, and egg) and a layer of pear slices. Theoretically, the layers of almond cream and pears, applied to the top of the cake batter, sink during the baking to end up at the bottom--which becomes the top as you turn the cake out. In actuality, my pear layers stopped about half-way through the cake, though the almond cream did end up on top.


Swedish Pear and Almond Cream CakeOverall it's a very easy cake, except for cleaning up after using the food processor for the almond cream and the stand mixer for the cake batter. It rose beautifully and turned out easily, and the design of the Bavaria bundt pan I chose showed up nicely. Tasting results were good too--I found it a moist cake with good flavor, almost a pound cake texture (which I love), though I could wish that mine hadn't ended up with essentially 3 zones: the plain cake, the pear layer, and the two bites of almond-y goodness. It didn't integrate well, though each bit was tasty on its own.

Other tasters' comments mostly stuck to "good cake", with the exception of one friend who was wanting a different cake. When I told her this was a pear and almond cake, she was expecting more the style of the apple upside-down cake or the plum and blueberry torte--half cake, half fruit. That is not this cake. :)

7 comments:

  1. Nine days at Disney... NINE? Wow.

    Nice cake. Sounds like a lot of people would refer this cake be more almond flavored throughout. I can't wait to see how mine turns out.

    :)
    ButterYum

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  2. I need to confirm what BetterYum said... NINE Days? man, I can not even stand 1 day in that place, way to much happy for me (LOL).

    I'm going to try to make this again, and obmit the pears all together and double the almond paste and see the results.

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  3. Wow, that's a lot of time at Disney World! I like the way your slice of cake looks with the pears in the middle.

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  4. Loved the color of your cake. I found it enjoyable for brunch or afternoon tea/coffee get togethers.

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  5. SOOO ENVIOUS! I want to go Disney World too! LOL! Is 9 days too long? I was also thinking about a week if i were to go to Florida's disneyland..lol! My son's fave..he can sleep in disneyland if they allow..LOL!

    Monica, you don't like Disneyland? Hmm..actually besides my son, i quite like it too..LOL! I like anything cartoons and fairytale..LOL! PS: I still haven't grow up yet..

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  6. I'm back after baking and sampling my cake. I agree with you, the pear/almond layer is wonderful, but that left me feeling a bit let down as far as the rest of the cake was concerned. Too bad they didn't mesh a little better together.

    :)
    ButterYum

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  7. Your description was excellent. I enjoyed the cake, but will use 2 pears next time and I really liked the almond cream. Your cake looks great - I need to buy that pan.

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