spiced pear cake with crumble topping

Spiced Pear Cake

3 large pears, peeled,

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

120 g butter, softened

100 g soft brown sugar

80 g caster sugar

2 eggs

70 grams ground almonds

100 grams flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon all spice

¼ teaspoon salt

Crumble topping

130 g pecan, ginger & coconut nograin-ola

40 g cold butter, cubed

40 g brown sugar

40 g all-purpose flour

Method

Heat oven to 180ºC, grease and line a 23cm cake tin.

Core pears and cut into 1cm chunks. Place vanilla essence and pears into a small saucepan over a low heat. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until pears have softened, stir regularly. Drain off any excess liquid and set aside to cool.  

In a large bowl, or bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring between each. Add the ground almonds and sift in remaining ingredients. Mix until well combined. Add half of the softened pears to the cake batter and gently fold through. Pour into cake tin and top with remaining pears.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine all crumble topping ingredients. Rub together with your hands to evenly distribute butter and break up any large chunks of nograin-ola.

Scatter crumble topping over cake and return to the oven for 15 – 20 minutes or until golden brown.