Recipe Scene: Vanilla Pear Cake

This is a really quick and easy cake to make, and is a great way to use up pears. I often end up with one or two pears that are too squishy to eat, but it seems a shame to throw them away. By stirring them through a vanilla cake batter, you get a delicious pear flavour to the cake, plus you can feel virtuous for not having thrown the pears in the compost.

Ingredients

125 grams butter

275 grams / 1 ¼ cups sugar

3 eggs

150 grams / 1 cup plain flour

75 grams / ½ cup self raisisng flour

¼ teaspoon bicarbonate soda

125 mls / ½ cup milk

2 very ripe pears, peeled and diced

1 firm pear, peeled, cored and sliced

Method

1. Grease and line a 20 cm round cake tin, and heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Cream the butter and sugar together, gradually add the eggs then mix through the remaining cake ingredients except the pears. Gently mix through the diced pears.
2. Pour the cake batter into the tin. Carefully arrange the pear slices on top of the cake mix and place in the oven. Bake for about 45 minutes or until cooked and nicely browned on top.
3. Serve warm, or allow to cool. Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.