This yummy apple and pear cake is fairly straight forward to make, full of sweet fruit nested in a soft, vanilla scented cake – a simple desert full of flavour!  The taste of the apple and pear, gently caramelised whilst baking, is balanced out by the semi sweet vanilla cake and enhanced by, of course (!), a pinch of salt and gorgeous butter. Although this takes almost 1 hour to bake, the wait is soooooo worth it and makes your whole house smell delicious!

Ingredients:

• 1 large, sweet apple
• 1.5 large pear
• 150gr butter, melted
• 4 eggs
• 100gr self raising flour
• 100gr wholemeal flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 100gr white sugar
• 50gr vanilla sugar (homemade)
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 pinch of vanilla powder (optional)
• 1 pinch of vanilla sugar extra (wait, I’ll explain why!)
• handful of almond slices – for decoration

 

Method:

Wash and peel the fruit, discard the peels and keep a couple of slices of apple and pear on the side.  These slices will be used as decoration, together with the almond slices.  Take the remainder of the fruit and dice into a bowl. Add on a pinch of vanilla powder and vanilla sugar and shake so all the apple and pear is kind of covered in sugar.

Preheat your oven on hot air, on 160 °C – I like using hot air for an even bake.

Add the butter to a  bowl and soften in the microwave by heating it up 20 seconds at the time.  Mix all the pieces until they’re melted through and let cool down.

In a larger bowl, break your 4 eggs and beat them like omelette.  When cold, add the butter in and mix well.  Now add the flour on, but sifted and bit by bit.  Mix until you have a smooth lump free batter.  Add on the white sugar, vanilla sugar, baking powder and pinch of salt. Again, mix all very well until you have a smooth homogenous batter.

Take your baking mould and add on a layer of batter.  Then add on all the diced apple and pear. Spread evenly over the full mould with a spatula.  On on the remainder of the batter and spread again, to ensure all fruit is covered.  To decorate, alternate the slices of pear and apple in the middle of the cake.

Now the overwork starts!  Bake the cake for 50-55 minutes in your preheated hot oven.  You would know it is cooked through if you push in a skewer and it comes out clean.  At this point, take the cake out, sprinkle the almond slices and place back in the oven. Switch off the heat and leave the cake until the oven is fairly cold.  Then remove the cake and let cool entirely.  When serving you can eat like is, or add on whipped cream or some greek yoghurt and apple and pear slices on the side.