Pear and eggnog cake with speculatius base

Ingredients for 16 servings:

• 120 g butter
• 250 g flour
• 150 g sugar
• 25 g ground almonds
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• ½ pack of speculoos spice (7.5 g)
• 1 egg(s)
• 1 pinch of salt
• Dried pulses for blind baking
• 1 ½ large can(s) of pear(s) (Williams Christ)
• 2 packets of vanilla pudding powder
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 750 ml pear juice
• 300 ml whipped cream
• 2 packs of cream stiffener
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• 200 g sour cream
• 200 ml egg liqueur
• 1 pack of no-cook vanilla sauce powder

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 10 minutes

For the shortcrust pastry base, knead together all ingredients up to and including the salt. Grease a 26 cm springform pan. Roll out the shortcrust pastry on a floured surface and line the springform pan with it. Leave a 4 cm high edge. Prick the base several times with a fork, place baking paper on the dough and fill with the pulses to a depth of about 2 cm. Bake the base at 200 °C (top/bottom heat) for about 20 minutes. Remove the baking paper and pulses and bake for another 5-10 minutes. Allow to cool and place a cake ring around it. There will usually be some dough leftover, which can then be used to cut out small figures (stars or similar) and bake. These can later be used to decorate the cake. For the filling, drain the pears and collect the juice. Cut the pears into small cubes. Make a pudding from the pudding powder, sugar and pear juice according to the package instructions. If there isn’t enough juice, add a little water. You can also replace some of the juice with white wine or sparkling wine. Fold the pear cubes into the pudding and fill the base with everything. Place a sheet of cling film directly on the mixture to prevent a skin from forming. Allow to cool. For the topping, whip the cream with vanilla sugar and cream stiffener until stiff, pour onto the pear and pudding mixture and smooth out. Mix the advocaat with the sour cream and vanilla sauce powder and spread over the cream. Refrigerate the cake for 1-2 hours until the advocaat cream has set. If you are not making the cake during the Christmas season, you can simply leave out the speculatius spice or add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter instead.