poached pear, cinnamon & honey cake with soft-peaked cream

prep 30mins cook 45-55 mins Serves 6-8

I’ve come to realise that my muse for this was the IKEA KAFFEREP apple cake—a treat that captured my heart and mind as a young child. Within the first month of finishing my version, subbing in poached pears and honey, I was asked to make it for three separate occasions. I realised I’m not alone in my obsession with a sweet cinnamon crumb. IKEA cake, thank you for being my North Star and leading me to this wonderful slice of sanctuary.

poached pears
1L water
1 tbsp honey (optional)
90g sugar
4 small pears (peeled & cored)
1 cinnamon stick

cake
3 tbsp ground flaxseed (for flax egg)
100 ml boiling water (for flax egg)
300g plain flour
90g caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
3 tsp baking powder
140ml sunflower oil (sub for any neutral oil)
120ml soya milk
2 tbsp honey
1 tbsp black treacle (optional sub for honey)
1 tbsp white vinegar

soft-peaked cream
220ml double cream (I use coconut collab)
50g icing sugar (to taste)

for the poached pears

  1. Peel, slice in half and then core your pears. I use my measuring spoons to do the coring.

  2. Place in a pot along with the water, sugar, honey and cinnamon stick. Cover and cook on medium heat until fork tender—about 30 minutes.

  3. Remove pears and continue cooking the syrup until it reduces to a thick caramel syrup (about 30 minutes). I recommend setting a timer so you don't forget about it and let it reduce too much! Once you have a honey-like consistency, turn the heat off and cover.

  4. While the pears are poaching and the liquid is reducing, start the rest of the cake.

for the cake

  1. Line the bottom of an 8 or 9 inch cake tin with baking paper. Brush the sides with the same oil you’re using for the sponge. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C.

  2. In a small bowl, pour boiling water over the ground flaxseeds, mix and allow to rest for at least 5–10 minutes. The water needs to be boiling for the flax egg to coagulate!

  3. In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together until incorporated—the flour, sugar, salt, ground cinnamon, and baking powder.

  4. In a medium bowl, add the wet ingredients—the oil, soya milk, honey, black treacle and vinegar. Do not mix the wet and dry until you’re ready to put the cake in the oven, as the vinegar will rise as soon as it touches the baking powder.

  5. Take three or four halves (roughly 100g) of the poached pears, press to remove any excess liquid and pat dry. As this is an eggless recipe, this is necessary to ensure a light crumb. Cut these into 1cm pieces and coat in a sprinkle of flour and cinnamon, then add them to your dry mixture.

  6. Take that reduced poaching syrup and drizzle it into the bottom of your cake tin. With the remaining poached pears, cut lengthwise into 1cm slices and place them in the syrup. I like to do a spiral formation with the slices.

  7. Make a well in the centre of the dry mixture and pour in the wet mixture. Stir with a spoon or spatula until the flour is incorporated and there are no dry parts. It will be a thick mixture. Careful not to over-mix— a tip is to stop 1–2 folds before you think it’s actually done!

  8. Immediately dollop the mixture into the tin and smooth over the top.

  9. Bake at 180°C for 45–55 minutes or until it’s started to brown on top, the sides have pulled away from the tin, and a skewer comes out clean.

  10. Let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before flipping and letting it cool on a baking rack, caramelised pear side up. Let it cool completely before dusting with icing sugar.

for the soft peaked cream

  1. By hand or electric, whisk the double cream until soft peaked, then whisk in 50g icing sugar or to your desired sweetness.