Totally sweet: a recipe from an actual French person! Here's a guest post from the wonderful and talented Helene, whose work you can find over here.

Well, today you will be able to amazed every one by cooking: "une bagatelle de poires pochées" for 8. How to make it? Nothing easier... I'll show you right now.

First, you have to prepare your pears by dousing them in a delicious sugar and spice coating.

For 4 pears, mix into a big pan:

1 liter of water
500 g of sugar
3 or 4 cinnamon stick
Some star anise
4 g. of vanilla

Let the mixture heated and dip your peeled pears, drained and cut in 2 pieces.

Let it cook slowly...

Second, prepare the biscuit

This is a cheap and easy recipe for a biscuit very Frenchy and so good.... This is the basis of our fruits or chocolate charlotte cake. For our recipe we need to prepare it in 2 plain circles. But first of all... the recipe :

Ingredients

4 eggs
100 g of sugar
100 g of flour

Procedure

Separate the white from the egg yolk. Mix the yolk and 80 g of sugar in a bowl: whisk strong enough to lather and bleach everything.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and mixed with the remaining 20g sugar. Whisk again to smooth everything.
Mix it gently with the yolk. Stir very slowly so as not to « break » our preparation.
Add in once the flour and mixed it still gently.
The batter is ready ! take your pastry tip and bag...
Make 2 regular spiral, the size of your dessert circles.
Sprinkle with icing sugar or cocoa powder twice.
And presto! : bake them, 15 min. à 180°C

And third, the mousseline cream!

We have to start with our pear mixture.

Once it cooled, we will have to mix it with butter cream.

Ingredients

300 g of whole milk
1 egg
40 g of sugar
30 g of fecule de pomme de terre (I don't know the word for this)
1/2 vanilla pod

Faire un pâtissière :

Heat the milk with the vanilla until it bowled.
In the mean time, whisk together egg, sugar, powdered cream with a little hot milk (to relax the mixture).
Once the milk is boiling, mixed everything in the pan and thicken everything, whisking bluntly!
Be careful not to burn the preparation
Once ready, take the mixture away from the fire and put it down a plate to the freezer for 20 minutes to cool it completely.
Meanwhile, get your 170g soft butter! I mean a soft butter (not melted) and whip it into cream .
When your mixture is cooled, mix butter whipped with it.

Your mousseline is ready!

Fourth, assembly ...

Your pears are drained and cutted
Place your first biscuit in the bottom and wet it with syrup poached pears.
Put your cream into a first layer and place a pear slice on the side of your circle.
Fill with half a pear cutted in small pieces! be generous and cover with cream mousseline.
Cover it with your second wet biscuit !
The circle is completed ...chill for at least 2 hours.
Once cooled, here is a great cake nearly done!
It is better to eat the next day, so the flavors will be stronger and better "soaked" !

C'est formidable...

Finally, some decorating suggestions!

In France, it is common to add a thin layer of almond paste and write the name of the cake on it.

But I prefer that you use your imagination. If you're afraid of spoiling, prefer simplicity! For example, use your last poached pears into slices and place it on your decor, or the spices from the syrup...or maybe you'd like to make them into little "cupcakes" ...the sky's the limit!

Thank you very much! I hope you love this "bagatelle" French pear cake !