It's coming towards the end of Quince season here in South Africa at the moment. The quine is a strange fruit that needs to be cooked to make it edible. However, once poached, made into marmalade or preserve the transformative effect of cooking is magical.

I like to make some quince and lemon jam or quince, lime and chilli jam to serve with cheese. But I will make that in a few weeks' time.

For now, I had a few quinces left over and decided to adapt a pear cake to use quince instead. In fact, as is often the case, this quince version was far superior to the original.

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Vanilla Cake with Poached Quince Recipe

Ingredients:

For the Quinces:

3 quinces, peeled, cored and quartered
750ml (3 cups) water
200g (1 cup) granulated white sugar
1 vanilla pod (bean), split lengthways and seeds scraped out

For the Cake:

200g (1 cup) butter at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
200g (1 cup) caster sugar
4 eggs at room temperature
280g (1 1/4 cups) self-raising flour
140ml (2/3 cup) Greek yoghurt
100g (1 cup) ground almonds

For the Glaze:

110g (1/2 cup) icing (confectioners') sugar
3 tbsp quince poaching syrup

Method:

Begin with the quinces. combine the quince quarters, water, sugar, vanilla pod and seeds in a large, heavy-based pot. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 25 minutes, or the quinces are tender when pierced with a knife. Take off the heat and set aside to cool completely in the syrup.

Now start on the cake. Cream together the sugar and butter in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla sugar, one egg and 1 tbsp of the flour and beat until the egg is combined. Add the next egg and 1 tbsp flour and beat until combined. Repeat until all the eggs have been incorporated. Sift the remaining flour into the mix and stir until combined. Now fold in the yoghurt and ground almonds until completely incorporated.

Pour half the batter into a greased and lined 23cm (9 in) round cake tin.

Remove the quinces from their poaching liquid and slice thinly before draining on kitchen paper. Arrange a thick layer of quince slices over the batter in the cake tin (but reserve enough quince slices for topping) then top with the remaining batter. Transfer to an oven pre-heated to 180ºC (375ºF) and bake for about 60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake emerges cleanly.

If the top starts to brown too much, cover it loosely with aluminium foil after 40 minutes. Once done, remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin.

For the glaze, mix the icing sugar with 3 tbsp of the left-over quince poaching syrup and beat until smooth. Spread the glaze over the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides. Finally top the cake generously with the remaining slices of quince.

If you have any left-over quince poaching liquid store it in the refrigerator and add it to any quince jam or quince marmalade you may be making.

Printable version of the Recipe