Christmas Creme Brulee Cake with Mulled Wine Bulbs

Peel, halve and core the pears. Wash clementines with hot water, rub off the skin, squeeze out the juice. Briefly bring both to the boil together with the red wine, sugar, anise, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom. Then add the pears and simmer in the stock for about 10 minutes over low heat. Remove the pot from the stove. Leave the pears in the spice wine brew in the refrigerator overnight.

Roughly crumble the speculoos for the base (best in a plastic bag. Knead the speculoos crumbs, butter, powdered sugar, 1 egg yolk and the flour to form a smooth dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180 ° (fan oven 160 °). Butter the springform pan. Roll out the dough about 3 mm thick on a floured work surface. Line the springform pan with it. Prick the dough with a fork and prebake in the hot oven (center) for about 20 minutes, then remove from the oven. Cut the sponge cake base to the size of the shape and place on the pre-baked dough.

Reduce the oven temperature to 150 ° (fan oven 130 °). Now place the remaining egg yolks in a bowl. Slit open the vanilla pods and scrape out the pulp. Cut the marzipan into fine pieces (works best with a coarse kitchen grater) Then bring the marzipan milk, cream, sugar and vanilla pulp to a boil in a saucepan. First carefully stir 3-4 tablespoons of it into the egg yolks, then stir this mixture into the rest of the milk-cream mixture. Then keep stirring the mixture over a hot water bath until a thick cream is formed.

Now take the pears out of the spiced wine and place on the sponge cake base. Pour the creme brûlée mixture on top and bake in the oven (center) for about 1 hour. Then take the cake out of the oven and let it cool down. In the meantime you can warm up the spiced wine and enjoy it 😉

To serve, sprinkle the creme brûlée with the brown sugar and caramelize with a bunsen burner or under the grill until golden brown.