Pear & Almond Cake with Coconut Rosemary Caramel

This spongy softly-textured cake is lightly spiced with vanilla and cinnamon, and adorned with thin slices of local pear. The star of the show, however, is the rosemary-infused coconut caramel sauce, which is generously drizzled on top. So good!!! 

PEAR & COCONUT CAKE WITH COCONUT ROSEMARY CARAMEL

INGREDIENTS

For the caramel sauce:

• cream from a can of 400ml full-fat coconut milk (keep liquid to make a smoothie)

• ½ cup honey or maple syrup

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

• 2-3 sprigs rosemary

For the cake:

• 100g coconut oil or butter, melted

• 100g / 1 cup light muscovado or coconut sugar, plus 2 tbsp for topping

• 200g / 2 cups ground almonds

• 70g / ½ cup sorghum or brown rice flour

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 2 tsp cinnamon powder

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder

• A pinch of sea salt

• 3 free range eggs

• 1 cup thick natural yoghurt or coconut yoghurt

• 3 medium pears, very finely sliced

METHOD
1. Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease a 9"/23cm round cake tin, with coconut oil or butter.

2. Combine all cake ingredients in a bowl, and whisk until well combined.

3. Pour the batter into the greased cake tin, and smooth out evenly with a spatula.

4. Arrange the pears on top in circles, allowing them to overlap if you like. Sprinkle the additional sugar over the pears.

5. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in to the middle of the cake comes out clean.

6. Whilst the cake is baking in the oven, make the caramel sauce. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine all the ingredients, and bring to a soft boil.

7. Turn the heat down to low, and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Stir often towards the end as it can burn easily. Remove from the heat, and pour through a sieve to remove the rosemary.

8. Once the cake is ready, remove from the oven and allow cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, and then carefully turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

9. Drizzle the caramel sauce over the top.