Pear and sour cream cake with meringue according to Aunt Hanna

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 125 g butter, cold
• 75 g sugar
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 250 g flour, type 405
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 can pear(s), Williams Christ (450g drained weight; possibly 1 1/2 cans)
• 1 pack of pudding powder, cream (possibly vanilla)
• 350 ml pear juice, from the can
• 1 lemon(s), the juice
• 2 cups of sour cream (200 g each)
• 3 egg whites
• 100 g sugar

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour 5 minutes; Total time approx. 2 hours 5 minutes

creamy, fruity cake, but without whipped cream

Quickly knead the flour, baking powder, cold butter in small pieces, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla sugar into a shortcrust pastry, chill for about 30 minutes, roll it out, and line a greased and/or lined springform pan (26 cm diameter) with it, creating a 4 cm high rim. Preheat oven to 175 °C. Drain the pears, collect the juice, and measure out 350 ml. Mix the custard powder with a little of the juice until smooth, bring the remaining pear juice and lemon juice to a boil, stir in the custard powder, and bring to a boil briefly. Fold the sour cream into the still-hot pudding. Cover the pastry base with the pear halves. If you like, you can also chop the pears up a bit; one can will be enough; if you use the whole halves, you’ll need 1 1/2 cans. Pour the sour cream mixture over the pears; They should be covered with at least a thin layer, otherwise they will dry out or turn black. Bake the cake at the above temperature for about 40-45 minutes, check after 30 minutes whether it is browning too much, if so cover with aluminum foil and finish baking. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks, sprinkle in the sugar and continue beating until the sugar is dissolved. Spread the meringue mixture on the cake or, which is nicer, pipe it on using a piping bag with a star nozzle; dots with a large nozzle also look nice. Bake the cake at the same temperature for another 20 minutes until the meringue is a nice light brown. Allow to cool COMPLETELY before cutting! Variation instead of the meringue: after baking, mix another cup of sour cream with a little cinnamon and spread it on the still-hot cake, but then use a whole egg for the batter instead of the egg yolks so that you don’t have any egg whites left over.