Buttermilk Cake w/ Pears

By LisaMK

This recipe is from Food and Wine, Feb 2011.

Ingredients

• Cake:
• 2 c cake flour
• 1 tbs baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/2 c light brown sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 c buttermilk
• Pears:
• 5 pears
• 1 bottle Riesling (750 ml)
• 1 c water
• 1 c sugar
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
• 1 3 inch long strip of orange zest
• 3 star anise pods
• Frosting:
• 1 c creme fraiche
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
• 1/4 c confec sugar

Details

Servings 10
Preparation time 60mins
Cooking time 100mins

Preparation

Step 1

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
butter 9 inch cake pan and line it w/9 inch round parchment paper.
Butter parchment paper.
In bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt.
In large bowl, beat butter w/both sugars at med-hi speed until light and fluffy. Add yolks, one at a time, beating well until between additions. Beat in the lemon zest and vanilla extract. At low speed, alternately beat in the flour mixture and buttermilk until almost blended. With a rubber spatula, finish folding the mixture together just until smooth.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 35 mins., center should come out clean.
Transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Pears:
Peel and halve pears. With spoon, scoop out the cores and discard. large saucepan, combine riesling, water, sugar, vanilla bean and seads, orange zest and star anize pods.
Bring to boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add pears and simmer over moderate heat, turning once, until tender, 5 mins. Transfer pears to large plate. Discard anise, vanilla bean and orange zest. Boil riesling poaching liquid over high heat until reduced to 1 cup and syrupy, 15 mins. When pears cooled, slice them lengthwise 1/3 inch thick.
Frosting:
small bowl, combine all ingredients.
Unmold cake onto plate and peel off paper. cut cake into 10 wedges and transfer to plates. Placed a sliced pear alongside the cake slice. spoon some syrup over the cake and top with frosting and serve.