Pear Cake

 

 I have to make it a habit to carry my camera everywhere I go.  You never know what you come across and you would have liked to capture it on film (or now on an SD card).  I have one of those little camera phones, but it never beats what a real camera could do. 

For many, they see the world through the lens of a camera.  Some time back I had the opportunity to meet a semi-professional photographer.  While getting talking, he mentioned that he feels compelled to capture almost anything he sees.  He gave me a good example – he said had he to see a house on fire and people needing to be saved, his first priority would be to capture the shots with his camera and then only try to save the people.  But then again, pictures speak what a 1000 words could never describe.  The powerful pictures coming out of Vietnam or Iraq during the war stirred so many emotions. 

I am no pro at taking pictures.  Hell…I am not even a semi-pro.  I just like to capture moments with the family, landscape and of course my food.  Not only my food, even food others cook and I think is good enough to be worked upon or experimented with.  For example, yesterday I was at a restaurant and ordered some baked mussels in a pumpkin sauce.  The mussels were minimal – about five to be exact.  The sauce was good, but too “pumpkin” which then gave a sweetish taste.  And the color – let us say I would serve this dish only at Halloween.  Now if I had my camera with me, you would have understood exactly what I meant.  But I do plan to work a bit on this dish sometime in the future and add my own stamp to it.  It is a good start point, but I would have increased the mussels, perhaps added some other veggies to the pumpkin for a better texture and taste and then maybe even some herbs and garlic. 

Preparation Time:  1 hour 30 minutes

Serves 6

Ingredients:

4 cups peeled, cored and chopped pears

2 cups white sugar

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

4 egg whites

2/3 cup corn oil

Vanilla essence

2 tablespoons raisins

1 tablespoon almonds, chopped

1 cup chopped pecans

1 tablespoon chocolate chips

Method:

1. Combine the pears and the sugar and let stand for one hour.    
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Spray a 10 inch bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray. 
3. Slightly beat the egg whites and combine them with the oil, chopped pecans and pear mixture.
4. Stir the flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves. 
5. Stir in the pear mixture. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan. 
6. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 1 hour and 10 minutes.  
7. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.