Doesn’t this Pear Salted caramel and Beer cake look amazing?. It really is as delicious as it looks.
It is Spring and that means a lot of creatures big and small come out to enjoy the balmy nights. That’s also when we humans throw caution to the wind and wander about without shoes on darkened cooling grass….and strike trouble.
I have been suffering from a very painful shoulder that has a little bit of restricted movement and when I lift my arm above my head there is intense pain. When I move it quickly or bump it I turn into a ridiculous blubbering idiot. On a recently new warm spring night with the promising scent of a voluptuously flowering Jasmine bush in the air, I stepped off the verandas and straight into a sticky groping spider web whose occupant was just as surprised as I was.
I am just a little petrified of Spiders and the blood curdling scream coupled with my flailing arms and then my anguished weeping whist still swearing at the top of my lungs brought Skater from the house. He saw that I was both in agony and petrified with terror and all I could do was yell get it off…. get it off….. He pulled me into the light and checked me over, looking for any Spider silly enough to be still attached, then lead me into the house. He even asked if I wanted a cup of tea.
I had walked straight into the huge web with a round fat bodied Spider in the middle at about my neck level. The poor Spider had no opportunity to run and I felt it swing into my neck with web wrapped around my ears before it could even run. My hand grabbed it off my neck and flung it with such force it almost pulled my sore arm out of its socket. In the panic I didn’t know if it was gone I was in so much pain I wasn’t sure if I was screaming or if it was someone else. Skater tells me with the eyes of a reliable witness that I was throwing my arms all over the place and screaming. I will never forget the feel of that fat little body on my neck.
My arm was probably damaged a little more in that moment. I lived through it but I still have nightmares about the feel of that Spider in my hands.
Times like this call for some comfort and that usually means cake ….don’t you think? This cake is not only made with beer and pears it’s comfortably caramel with a touch of salt added. It will cure just about anything except inflamed ligaments it seems. Why don’t you make it and see if it can fix you.
Pear, Salted Caramel and Beer Cake
Ingredients
- 50 gm butter 2 tablespoons
- 200 gm sugar 1 cup
- 60 ml beer 1/4 cup
- 20 ml lemon Juice 1 T
- 125 ml water 1/2 cup
- pinch aof salt
cake
- 200 gm flour plain (1 1/3 cups) flour
- 200 gm caster sugar 1 cup
- 80 gm brown sugar 1/2 cup
- 150 ml beer
- 1 Egg
- 60 ml buttermilk 1/4 cup
- 100 gm melted butter
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 whole pears
Instructions
- Line a 23 cm (10 inch) cake tin with a removable bottom and spray or grease well. Pre-heat the oven to 170 C / 325 F
- Peel the pears and cut into 8 ths or similar. Not thin slices, nice chunks. Arrange on the bottom of the tin
- Put the butter, sugar, lemon juice and beer in to a wide bottomed pot and bring to a simmer. Boil over medium to high heat till it starts to turn golden brown. Make sure it is a nice brown colour before adding the 1/2 cup of water. stir and bring back to the boil before taking off the heat and adding the salt, stir well.
- Pour enough of the caramel over the pears to cover, you probably wont need all of it . Set aside.
- Mix the dry ingredients, then add the beer, melted butter, egg and buttermilk and mix well.
- Pour the batter over the caramel and smooth down. Bake for around 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Let the cake sit for 5-10 minutes after you take it out of the oven. Run a sharp knife around the edge carefully and remove removable side of the cake tin. . Turn the cake over onto a plate and remove the cake base, then peel off the baking paper. My second and third attempt were amazing.
Angie@Angie's Recipes
The cake looks incredibly rich and delicious! Hope your shoulder gets better soon, Tania.
Lizzy (Good Things)
What an absolutely marvellous cake! Love it! I hate spiders too… I thought it was summer already.
Kate @rosehipsrhubarb
That cake looks unbelievably good. Upside-down cakes are the best.
I hope your shoulder feels better soon.
My Kitchen Stories
Thanks Kate. I agree that they are usually the mostest and most fruity
Pearl - Pretty Mayhem
That spider encounter sounds positively horrifying! I had a cockroach fall onto my head when I was in the shower once (we lived in Africa then) and I think I’m still scarred from the experience lol. I hope your shoulder improves soon though! Hopefully this beautiful cake helped!
Liz @ I Spy Plum Pie
That looks amazing, and combines some of my favourite flavours! Yummo! Hope your shoulder is on the improve soon and you recover from the spider incident!
Anna @ Just a Mum
Ugh, spiders, thankfully here in NZ we don’t have too many big ones but I am not even a fan of little ones! The cake looks gorgeous!!! Stopping by from FFF 🙂
Gonzo
We’ll be trying this one out for sure!! Looks delicious!
celia
Ugh, you poor thing! I’m so sorry your shoulder is sore – hope you can get that fixed by someone. And nearly eating the spider – ugh again. On the upside though, you got to eat this gorgeous cake AND once again, your Skater showed what a truly gorgeous young man he is, bless him. xxx
Angie@Angie's Recipes
o my..those sticky caramelized pears…heavenly!
Lucy @ Bake Play Smile
I can just imagine that this would be totally moist and delicious! Love the flavours you’ve used!! xx
Minnie
What a fab looking cake. I’m so sorry about your shoulder…spiders can be so pesky , though I am not really afraid of them, but they are creepy. I hope you feel better soon
Adri
Oh, I’d need something after an experience like that. This cake sounds perfect. Take care of that arm! Bad shoulders can be so debilitating. We forget how much we use our arms, how much we move them until there is something wrong. Stay well, and stay away from the spiders!
Choc Chip Uru
Oh god, I hope you feel a lot better! That sounds so painful!
Spiders… oh god I can’t even, I go to major lengths to avoid them!
Hope you ate lots of this lovely cake (with the remaining beer of course!) to calm yourself!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Kari @ bite-sized thoughts
That experience calls for a LOT of cake. I absolutely hate walking into spiders webs – I am never sure if the spider is on me or not and really am reduced to a state of panic. It is awful! Your experience with the spider on you, your arm in agony and the massive web sounds just horrible. This cake, however, does sound like the thing to help.
Pamela Hayward
Poor you! I don’t like spiders either (or snakes)…and I grew up in the country! The cake sounds yummy and I think I would probably drink the rest of the beer too – especially after the spider incident!
Hotly Spiced
Wow Tania – we’ve posted very similar cakes today! My husband currently has a frozen shoulder and he’s in really dreadful pain. It’s going on and on and on and he’s seen so many specialists and I think the end result is that it’s going to take between 6-12 months to heal. I do hope the issue with your shoulder improves quickly as it’s so debilitating xx
InTolerant Chef
Oh you poor thing you Tania! I hope your shoulder OK, do you know what the problem is? Creepy crawlies really are the worst- I had to go to the doctor last week as a creature crawled right down into my ear drum while I was sleeping and he had to aggressively flush it out!! It was definitely one of the most revolting experiences EVER!
Your cake looks like the perfect remedy to bug related traumatic experiences- I’d like a big slice please sweetie xox
francesca
This cake looks perfect,my kind of cake with stcky pears. Now go and get that frozen shoulder treated. Physios can teach you some great exercises. Poor spider!
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef
I think I would have bought a 2-litre bottle of beer, used the 1/4 cup for the recipe and drank the rest while the cake was baking. I HATE spiders. or anything that’s wiggly.
That said, when I see you next week, one of these cakes would be pretty good. 🙂
ahu @ ahueats
Wow, some of my very favorite ingredients in one cake – it looks beautiful!