In honor of Louise’s visit to our home in Oakland, I baked a buttermilk cake with lemon-and-thyme-glazed pear compote!
And then I rudely ate a piece with Ben before she arrived.
Though it’s topped with pear, it’s not your typical fruit/jam-filled cake. The pear compote topping is actually steeped and partly pureed in a lemon and thyme syrup. The buttermilk cake is lightly sweet, dense, and crumbly. (I folded creme fraiche into the batter, to give it some zing.)
Epicurious says to make a Greek yogurt ice cream to accompany, but I am lazy. Luckily Ben discovered it is delicious with chocolate ice cream. (You know how some cakes are so sweet the ice cream actually cuts the sweetness? This is not that kind of cake.) It is a cake that is great for summer! Even when the heat is overwhelming, this cake is just right.
Punctuation, excitement!
You can find the recipe here.
