Feet up..

Ha ha. I have a purple kitchen. Not quite sure how I got that one past Mr B, then again, he hasn't got home to see the end result yet, so maybe I haven't quite got away with it yet. Then again, at the moment, he's more interested in knocking another wall down and as long as he doesn't have to raise a paintbrush, he's a happy man! 
So I'm now putting my feet up and catching up with X Factor. Every year I think that I won't watch it this time, that I won't let my entire run of Saturday evenings up until Christmas get taken over by Mr Cowell's music production vehicle. Every year, it happens. Never mind. I do have a cuppa and piece of cake. Well I think I've deserved it. And it's a low fat cake. Still quite heavy on the sugar so the calories are still there - can't have everything. In it's original guise it was a spiced apple sauce cake, but on finding, yet again, a fruit bowl full of pears that have gone over, I came up with this version. Hope you like.

Pear and Ginger Cake

1kg pears
50ml sunflower oil
100g plain flour
100g wholemeal flour
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
225g caster sugar
100g raisins

1. Peel, core and slice the pears and put in a saucepan with 2 tbsp water. Cover and cook until softened and any excess moisture has cooked off.
2. Pre heat the over to 160 c. Grease and line a 20cm spring form tin. Sift the flours, bicarb and spices into a mixing bowl, then stir in the sugar and raisins. Weigh out 550g of pear puree and stir into the dry ingredients along with the oil.
3. Spoon into the tin, level the top and bake for 55-60 mins, until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean.

I was making again yesterday evening. I wanted a little coin purse to match my red manga bag and found this cute pattern in Issue 4 of Mollie Makes. Its a fiddly little thing to make, but I'm well chuffed with the end results.

I've still got just under half of my half metre left, so what next? Matching phone case? iPod cover? Camera case? Choices, choices....
xx