Ingredients
Greekwalnutandspicecake with red wine pears
Method
Greek walnuta and spice cake with red wine pears
1.Peel pears, keeping stalks attached, cut in half. Place sugar, wine, whole star anise and cinnamon sticks in a medium saucepan. Bring to the boil over medium heat stirring to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat to low, simmer for 5 minutes. Add pears and cover with a round of baking paper and a small heatproof plate to keep pears submerged. Simmer for 15 minutes or until just tender. Cool.
2.Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease a 22cm (9-inch) springform pan and line base and side with baking paper.
3.Pulse nuts in a food processor until finely chopped. Place nuts in a large bowl with breadcrumbs, baking powder and ground spices, stir until combined.
4.Beat egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until creamy. Add nut mixture and mix well. Fold in butter. Beat egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Fold egg whites into cake mixture in two batches. Pour mixture into pan.
5.Bake cake for 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Stand cake in pan for 10 minutes before turning, top-side up, onto a wire rack to cool.
6.Place 2 cups of pear poaching liquid in a small saucepan and simmer, over medium heat, for 10 minutes or until thickened.
7.Place cake on a cake stand or plate, top with pears and syrup.
