One afternoon Mr NQN and I were having lunch. Mr NQN looked over my shoulder and said,
“That homeless guy going through the bag in front of the clothing bin looks like my dad”
It’s true, Mr NQN’s dad has a scruffy beard and a rather dishevelled appearance and on more than one occasion, has been mistaken for down and out. One time, he was at Manly Beach and sorting out his backpack. He emptied it of a collection of empty plastic bags and a kind hearted man walked up to him and pressed a $10 note into his hand. He was so excited about his unexpected fortune he told us all about it- little did that man know that Mr NQN’s father is not short a quid, but he just looks like he is.
A few moments later, we saw a group of young guys self consciously carrying a “keep left” road sign, pilfered from nearby and between the four of them, their eyes darted every which way on the look out for police. But these guys weren’t the pilferers in question. Dear Reader, the pilferer was me. The reason I love eating out is often to get inspiration for baking or cooking. A cafe like Fleetwood Macchiato with a talented pastry chef can churn out some fabulous combinations and when they sat down a pear and rosemary tea cake in front of us, I reached for a bite, ready to slide the plate over to Mr NQN.
But I didn’t.
I kept eating. It was so good that I kept eating it and it was only upon protest from Mr NQN that I gave him the rest. The pastry chef explained that making it was simple, you start with a caramel and you start it in a similar way to a tarte tatin and that he processes the rosemary along with the flour. The rest is based on a Nigella rosemary loaf cake with some additions and changes. Instead of layering it with halves apples or pears, you layer it with thinly sliced pears and then a fragrant and moist rosemary cake. The cake is moderately easy, although I know some of you don’t like to make caramel. If you don’t and want to make a simplified version, you can omit the caramel and pear on top and just leave it as a plain tea cake with some sugar sprinkled on top. It stays moist from the pear inside but also I promise you that no-one will complain. Some might offer you money instead though, it’s that delicious 
So tell me Dear Reader, are you inspired to make things when you eat out? Where do you find inspiration to cook things? And do you choose recipes with pictures or ones that you can see what they will look like in the end?
Pilferer’s Pear & Rosemary Tea Cake
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
For caramel pear
- 1/4 cup/50grams caster or superfine sugar
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1/2 – 1 pear, peeled and cored and thinly sliced. Apple will also do.
For Cake
- 230g/2 sticks softened butter
- 1 cup/200grams caster or superfine sugar
- 4 eggs, at room temperature
- 1.5 cups/210grams plain all purpose flour
- 6 tablespoons cornflour or cornstarch
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1-2 stalks rosemary, needles only
- 1/4 cup/60ml milk, soured with a little lemon juice
- 1 pear, peeled and cored and diced
1. Preheat oven to 170C/340F. Spray the base and sides of a 22 cm tin generously with non stick oil spray. Then in a small saucepan, add the sugar and water and heat on medium heat being careful not to stir-it will form a caramel sauce-just make sure to watch it so that it doesn’t burn. Once this is done, pour it into the base of the prepared tin and fan with the pear pieces (being careful with your fingers as the caramel is hot). Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Whizz the flour, baking powder and rosemary in a small food processor so that the rosemary is broken up into little pieces. Add half of the flour mixture and fold into the batter. Add the rest and then the milk to thin it and stir in the pear pieces.
Not another ugly photo on the blog! 
3. Pour it over the pear and caramel and bake this for about 60 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and run a knife around the edge. Rest for 5 minutes and then carefully upend onto a serving plate.
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58 Comments | Add your own
Love the look of this cake – so pretty! Looks super delicious.
Beautiful and ever so tempting! A wonderful flavor pairing.
Cheers,
Rosa
Oh I am sure the flavours would be amazing!! Gorgeous images too, you are so good at styling! I love the comment under the bowl of flour
…and yes, I always eat out so I can find new things to recreate at home.
Gorgeous tea cake, I love the caramelized pears!
looks beautiful!! I like how the top arrangement looks like tarte tartin!! good for afternoon tea
Didn’t it come out of the tin beautifully! What a great recipe!
Anything starting with caramel is going to be good. I love this cake – beautiful flavour combinations and it looks gorgeous. You’re a star for sharing:) xo
Gosh that cake certainly looks good. Yes I do try to recreate recipes that I have eaten when I am out, I usually end up writing down what I can taste on a serviette or torn corner of paper. Plus I use websites to google recipes. Much prefer recipes with photos, after all isn’t it the yummy photos that entice us to get cooking. I just love trying out new recipes (even more if they are ultra successful!!)
Just want you to know how much I am enjoying your website since I subscribed. Being in S Africa our seasons are the same and I can relate to your food.
Thank you for the fun
Michael
Please can you let me know what 1.5 cups is in grams as emailing from england and we don’t use cups. Love your blog and recipes are lush !
Hi Babs! I’ve converted it for you
I think eating out is the inspiration for many recipes for sure.
This cake looks really delicious. I absolutely love rosemary in desserts, it’s so unexpected but its fragrance really lends itself to sweetness.
Thanks. What a lovely recipe. I like food that looks as good as it tastes. Pictures with a recipe are a must!! BTW – I like your subscribers blogs. So many great ideas from around the world.
LOL couldn’t help but laugh when Mr NQN thought that the old man looked like his father
I’m sure his dad is less disheveled hehe
I always get inspiration and want to try and make so many things at home but then I never have the time or don’t have the skills
Very nice with pears. I actually posted a classic tarte tatin not long ago and I had infused my butter with sage. Rosemary would be a great choice too.
I would love the cake, love making caramel and yes I get half of my inspiration from eating out. I always come home wanting to make something I had.
What a delectable little cake!
Yes, I like photos to accompany a recipe. I do have a dessert recipe that I still have on the back burner to try at home, from restaurant inspiration.
As a side note…one time my husband and I went on a three mile walk and he had on his big backpack, to train for a Mt Whitney hike, when a teen on a bike stopped and tried to give us a couple of dollars (which we declined:)) I thought it was so sweet! I guess we looked homeless:)
I often try to make things I have eaten in a cafe or restaurant….with some success. I love the look of this cake. I am glad you pinched the recipe.
I love ‘stealing’ ideas from restaurants and shops. I ask so many questions. Most people are happy to share their tricks and flattered that you like their dish so much. I’m yet to use rosemary in baking (other than spuds) but I can see how it would work.
I so love to add herbs to my desserts–thanks for this recipe. I like the look of it and think I will just have to make it soon.
I often eat something in a restaurant or see something online or in magazines, and then try to recreate my own version. In fact, I have bookmarked many photos of food you have tried in various places with the intention of trying to make my own version of it. Your blog really inspires.
I love getting inspiration from eating out. This looks just gorgeous!! Beautiful recipe.
Heidi xo
YUM!! looks divine Lorraine.
I always used to be one to only cook recipes that had a picture but now with the fact that I’m cooking all my Grandma’s recipes, I’m having to learn to cook without a picture. It can be challenging at times but is always so exciting to see what the final product will look like.
How delicious! I think this will be the perfect recipe to use our homegrown rosemary – never mind the lamb!
I like to see a photo of the final dish, but photos of the steps can be very helpful too
Pear cake of any description is yummy to me… thanks!
I’ve spent the last few months fiddling with peanut butter pudding recipes since we had it at Smoke in Brisbane. Now that I’ve got it just right and pretty much foolproof I may never make it again. I’ve had a lot of fun in kitchen with it, though
Yay, more rosemary desserts! Love it!
Awesome mix of flavours! I love the touch of an unexpected herb or spice.
Maybe he’s saving all his money to give your hubby and his siblings a huge inheiritance? 
Mr NQN’s dad must have a few interesting ideas with fashion sense, if he’s mistaken for a homeless guy
It’s quite difficult for me to make something from scratch, I need a recipe to be in front of me, of course with nice pictures, I always wanted to make things that at the end looks like you want to eat it.
Your cake looks GORGEOUS, true!
I want a piece NOW please too
Am a very visual person, images inspire me!
Always that next challenge of what will be my newly creative, innovative recipe!
How funny that Mr. NQN’s Dad happily told that story, I woudl have been mortified.
What an unexpected combination of flavours but I can see how they would work, and taste very gourmet. I love a caramel sauce and wouldn’t think of not including it.
I get my inspiration from the blogging world mainly, but from restaurants from time to time!
When we eat out and Kurt tastes something he really likes, he lets me know I need to learn to make it. I like the challenge! This cake sounds fabulous. Love the caramel and rosemary.
What an adorable cake! Sounds like a tasty combination too
ooh yummy looking cake! shall try that soon!
I am often inspired when we eat out and sometimes by recipes I read on the blogs
Mmmm I’m inspired by your blog my friend as always
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Love the look of this cake.. and how pretty and dainty it is.
Such a pretty cake and it must be so yummy:)
Ooh..you got me hooked by the very title. I love rosemary and I love them in my desserts. I’ve got to give this pear and rosemary combi a go. I’m a huge fan of upside down cakes. You get the caramelised fruit and the moist cake. So lovely when you eat it together.
I get my inspiration from everywhere – when I’m out dining, when I’m blog surfing… I have to admit that I don’t really like recipe books without pictures. You got to reel me in with a tempting and apetising photo first!
Yep, I always want the recipe and try to recreate favourite dishes at home. Lorraine, I recently returned from our trip to Italy and collect many recipes from my dear cousins but the Italian pizza…oh dear… try as I may I can’t recreate that taste! Hmmmm… unless I have woodfired pizza oven! Now that’s thought! Love you upside down cake. Caramel – my favourite in anything!
I love the look of that caramelized top and the juicy cake beneath. Gorgeous.
Looks divine! I was just looking at a recipe to make a big version of this!
Caramel and pear? SOLD!
Dear Lorraine,
Sometimes I get inspired to cook after a poor meal at a restaurant.
Yes – I love coming home and trying my hand at something I’ve eaten at a restaurant or even at a friend’s house. Sometimes I don’t think to ask for the recipe.
Loved the story of the $10 bill
Love the plate and oh the cake does look gorgeous as well. I constantly find inspiration eating out – well that’s what I use to justify it anyway.
Perhaps the reason I haven’t yet come into my fortune is that I’m too neat and tidy looking. I draw the line at growing a scruffy beard though! What a pretty cake but I love the plate even more (I hope that’s not offensive!) I do love the cake too but where did you get that plate??? xx
heehee I walk out of most restaurant meals with a list of things I need to re-create or spin at home! Really enjoying rosemary in sweet things these days, the pear combo sounds great.
Heavenly! And I’ve just been given a whoppingly huge bunch of rosemary, yeah!
I had to look up the word ‘Pilferer’ lol. I think eating out do inspire some dishes to be recreated at home, but mostly I get inspiration from fellow bloggers and cookbooks! It’s important to have photos before I proceed so I know what I’ll be aiming for.
I must make this. Is there an easy way to print out your recipe Lorraine, without cutting and pasting all the chucks of text onto a blank document as I don’t want to print the pictures (as nice as they are!)? There seems to be no print link embedded in the title.
looks delicious – I love making recipes with pictures because much as we want to make something tasting good, we also want to make something that looks good too and being able to follow a visual helps a lot (and also attracts me to recipes)
Love that pretty little plate and this recipe – I always have leftover rosemary from roasts and baked potatoes to use too
Wow, I love the sound of the pear and rosemary combination. The tea cake looks just amazing.
Hi Ann! There’s a print button and you can print with or without images. I really must get them to make the print button clearer as so often people miss it (it’s right at the bottom under “related posts”)
(I see you have a new fan in my dear friend Michael Olivier in South Africa! Cherish him – he is wonderful, generous and multi-talented!). This is one gorgeous little cake and the cut slice shows a light yet dense and mosit cake which I love. I make something vaguely familiar but I can see that now I have to pilfer your recipe. Husband loves pear desserts.
i won’t buy a cookbook if it doesn’t have pictures.
this recipe yields the most dainty and lovely cake, lorraine–thanks for sharing!
Yummo! This sounds delish, love pear in baked goodies. Like you, I often try to recreate dishes I’ve eaten places and yes, when it comes to recipes – a picture is a must for me!
I have become totally blog and picture dependant now to choose my recipes.
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