By Liane Arno
WHEN we travelled to France some years ago we stayed in a garret in the Gard du Nord area in order to save costs but it was still expensive. To get around the bed we had to do it crab style as the bed took up most of the room. We were only a short stroll away from the Sacre Coeur. This incredibly beautiful basilica is set at the highest point in Paris and in the neighbourhood of Montmartre. The white stone that it is made of emits calcite making it perpetually white. The winding alleyways take you past cafés and artist studios. Before the basilica was built Montmartre was a rural village on the fringe of Paris which had cheap rent that attracted struggling artists. It was here that Van Gogh painted his early works, Picasso developed Cubism, and Toulouse-Lautrec captured the vibrant and sometime sordid life of smoky cafés and the energy of the Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergère.
WHEN we travelled to France some years ago we stayed in a garret in the Gard du Nord area in order to save costs but it was still expensive. To get around the bed we had to do it crab style as the bed took up most of the room. We were only a short stroll away from the Sacre Coeur. This incredibly beautiful basilica is set at the highest point in Paris and in the neighbourhood of Montmartre. The white stone that it is made of emits calcite making it perpetually white. The winding alleyways take you past cafés and artist studios. Before the basilica was built Montmartre was a rural village on the fringe of Paris which had cheap rent that attracted struggling artists. It was here that Van Gogh painted his early works, Picasso developed Cubism, and Toulouse-Lautrec captured the vibrant and sometime sordid life of smoky cafés and the energy of the Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergère.
It would take about three quarters of an hour to walk to the Seine and of course we would get lost and for some reason ended up going through the red light district every time we took a wrong turn. Matt quipped on seeing a pair of breasts poking at him from a well-endowed, raven-haired woman, “I’ve seen that pair before, I know where we’re going now.”
But it is of another ‘pair’ that I want to speak of – pears. The Greeks considered them a gift of the gods and here in Australia you can enjoy them any time from January through to winter. I had a few too many to get through and thought I would make a cake with them. This is the easiest cake you will ever make and is brought together in a few minutes and in the oven for just a little over half an hour.
Combine in a bowl:
You can serve with just a dusting of icing sugar or make yourself a butter frosting by combining:
But it is of another ‘pair’ that I want to speak of – pears. The Greeks considered them a gift of the gods and here in Australia you can enjoy them any time from January through to winter. I had a few too many to get through and thought I would make a cake with them. This is the easiest cake you will ever make and is brought together in a few minutes and in the oven for just a little over half an hour.
Combine in a bowl:
- 1 ½ cups plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- ¾ cup pear pureé (produced by boiling two pears in a little bit of water and then blitzing. This will give you a little extra to make the frosting below.)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
You can serve with just a dusting of icing sugar or make yourself a butter frosting by combining:
- ¼ cup of creamed butter (do make sure it is creamed or you will end up with lumpy frosting)
- ¼ cup pear pureé
- 2 cups of icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract