Pear Sponge Cake with Fig Jam
Start with the pears: choose firm ones, still slightly underripe. Very juicy pears release so much liquid into the batter that the middle won’t set in the allotted 30 minutes and the slices sink to the bottom. Cut them genuinely thin — a thin slice stays suspended in a thick batter, a chunk drags it down.
The batter is a hybrid: yeast, but also butter creamed with 200 g of sugar (about a cup), plus mascarpone folded in at the end. The yeast gets only half an hour in the warm, enough for a light open crumb but not enough to develop a bready flavor. The mascarpone works as fat and as moisture at once, which is why the crumb is still creamy the following day. The fig jam goes onto the already-baked cake and returns to the 180°C (350°F) oven for 10 to 15 minutes: the water cooks off, the pectin sets, and instead of a sticky smear you get a glossy jelly glaze that holds its place.
What you can change, and what you can’t
- Mascarpone can become full-fat cream cheese — tangier flavor, denser crumb, but it works.
- Fig jam swaps for apricot or quince preserves; it has to be thick, or it soaks into the cake instead of setting on top.
- Don’t go smaller than a 28 cm (11 in) pan. The batter climbs as it proofs and bakes, so fill it no more than two-thirds of the way up.
Part of Italian cuisine — 33 more recipes in the section.
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Ingredients
Instructions
For the batter, beat the softened butter with the sugar using a mixer until the sugar is fully dissolved. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Sift the flour together with the salt, dissolve the yeast in the milk, and mix it with the flour and beaten eggs. Then fold in the mascarpone. Mix into a smooth batter, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rest in a warm place for half an hour.
Meanwhile, peel and core the pears. Cut them into small, thin slices.
Once the batter has rested, fold in the pear slices. Pour the batter into a round pan 28 cm (11 in) in diameter (the pan should not be filled to the top) and bake in an oven preheated to 180 C (350 F) for about 30 minutes.
Take out the cake, spread it with a thick layer of fig jam, and return it to the oven. Keep it there for 10 to 15 minutes, until the jam thickens to the consistency of a jelly glaze.
Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool. Dust with powdered sugar through a fine sieve, decorate with fruit and berries, and serve.
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