This great basic recipe has appeared many times before in Next Magazine, only now I have made a version with margarine and goat's yoghurt for anyone allergic to cow's milk. You'll enjoy this cake even if you don't like goat's milk as its flavour is indiscernible here.

Ingredients

• 250 grams margarine
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons vanilla essence
• 4 eggs
• 2½ cups self-raising flour
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• ½ cup semolina
• 1 cup goat's yoghurt
• 410 gram can pears drained, juice reserved
• 2 tablespoons finely sliced crystallised ginger

Ginger syrup

• reserved pear juice
• about ¼ cup water
• ½ cup sugar
• 2cm piece ginger, peeled and sliced

Method

1. Beat together the margarine, sugar and vanilla essence until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
2. Sift together the flour and ginger and fold into the creamed mixture with the semolina and goat's yoghurt.
3. Lightly grease a 23-24cm cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Pour in the mixture and arrange the pear quarters and sliced crystallised ginger on top.
4. Bake at 180ºC for 1¼ hours or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
5. Make up the reserved pear juice to 1 cup with water. Place in a saucepan with the sugar and ginger. Bring to the boil, simmer for 2 minutes and allow to cool. Once the cake is cooked and while still hot and in the tin, pierce the top all over with a bamboo skewer and slowly pour over the cooled, strained syrup. Cool in the tin for 1 hour before turning out. Serve warm or cold.