Confession time! I have always thought that coffee cake is something with a coffee flavor. So every time I read a recipe for coffee cake, I gently clicked away, because it is not something I particularly like, except maybe in my Chocolate Ganache Cake. I once saw a recipe and a photo of a coffee cake and nearly contacted the creator of it to fix her recipe, because no where in the list of ingredients did I see coffee. Duh!
Well, I have since my almost-embarrassing-moment, learned that a coffee cake does not have to have coffee as one of the ingredients, but it is a kind of cake that you will enjoy with a cup of coffee. Aah, that makes sense, doesn't it! In fact there are two kinds of coffee cakes, the one has a coffee flavor and the other is the one you have with coffee.
The coffee cake that traditionally goes with your favorite cup of java, is typically a single layer cake that may be square or rectangular or like a loaf-shaped cake. A coffee cake also sometimes have a streusel topping of a glaze of some sorts.

Now that we have remove all the confusion, let me tell you about my coffee cake. A friend of ours came to stay for a couple of days and brought bags and bags of sweets and fudge for the so-called children in the house, although I think dad might have made a bigger dent in the sweetie bag. By Sunday night we were all fudged-out and I also wanted to get rid of all the unnecessary temptations in the house, so the idea of a fudge coffee cake started to take shape in my head also because I had to bake something for Bible Study on Monday night. I did not want a dry cake and also I needed to think of something that would cut through the sweetness of the fudge and found a tin of canned pears in my cupboard. Eureka, I had a recipe!


Fudgy Coffee Cake with Caramelized Pears
makes one round cake

Ingredients

250gr butter- softened
250gr caster sugar
250gr self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
3 eggs
a little milk - about ¼ cup

For the topping
1 large tin of canned pears - about 800gr
3 blocks of caramel fudge - crumbled
2 heaped tbsp dark brown sugar
2 tbs butter - melted

Place all the ingredients for the cake in a bowl or your mixer and beat  until the mixture is fluffy, white and creamy. Use a spring form pan for this cake or if you do not have one, a normal tin will do, just spray with Spray n Cook and line with grease proof paper. Pour the melted butter in the bottom of the pan and swirl around to coat the whole bottom of the pan. Drizzle the brown sugar and the crumbled fudge over the butter. Now lay the pears in a circle in the bottom of the pan( pip sides up). Spoon the batter on top of the pears and lightly tap the pan so that the batter will fill all the gaps. Bake for about 40 -45 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.
Remove form the oven, let the cake rest for a while and then undo the clips of the pan, invert a cake plate onto the cake and turn the cake so that the pears and fudgy goodness is now on the top.

I served this cake with......wait for it......Peanut Brittle Ice-cream. Bigtime taste sensation. Recipes for the easiest home made ice-creams to follow soon!