Celebration cake

I made this cake for Gary´s christmas get together for science department. It took a long time to chop up all the dried fruits. I had dried figs, dates and a whole lot of other peculiar dried fruits, even dried kiwi. Perks of being in Mexico city. I did soak all the chopped fruits in Bacardi anejo for a week, it smelled heavenly.
 
raisins - 1 cup
dates - 1 cup

dried figs- 1 cup
dried currants - 1 cup
glace cherries - 1 cup
blanched almonds - 1 cup
dried apricot - 1 cup
chop all the fruits and nuts and soak in a cup of dark rum for a week or atleast overnight.

butter - 250 gm
brown sugar - 1 cup
eggs- 5
flour - 2 cups
baking powder - 1 teaspoon
cardamom - 5 pods
cinnamon stick - one inch piece
cloves - 2
dried ginger - 1 inch piece

powder the sugar with the spices. cream the spicey sugar with the butter. add eggs one a time and beat well after each addition.
sift the flour with baking powder. fold in the flour to the buuter. fold in dried fruits.
line a cake pan with three thickness of baking paper, extending the paper above the side.
spread mixture into pan.
bake at 150 degrees celsius for 2 and a half hours. test with a skewer, if it comes out sticky, bake for 30 more minutes.
remove from oven and brush the hot cake with rum.
stand overnight lightly covered in foil.

Pear and almond cake

 

 Ingredients
Pears - 5 to 8
sugar - 1 cup
water - 2 cups

lemon rind - 1 table spoon
eggs - 2
butter - 125 gms
ground almond - 100 gms
flour - 2 cups
baking powder - 1 teaspoon
sugar - 3/4 cup
cream - 1/2 a cup
Yoghurt - 1 tablespoon
flaked almond - 1/4 cup

Peel the pears and place it in a sauce pan with water and 1 cup of sugar. Bring to boil and add the lemon rind. Cook for 20 minutes and remove the pears from the syrup and keep it aside. Simmer the syrup till reduced in half and thickened.
Cream the butter with remaining sugar till creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Sift flour and baking powder together.
fold in the flour and ground almonds to the butter cream alternating with cream and yoghurt.
Grease a springform tin.
Pour the batter into the tin and push the pears into the batter.
Sprinkle flaked almonds over the batter.
Bake at 160 degrees celsius for 1 hour 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and pour reserved syrup over the cake.