Conference Pear...

Anyone that knows me will know I tend to like making loaf cakes. They're easy to bake, easy to transport wrapped in a bit of foil if I want to take them into work and also easy to cut and serve.

So I fancied doing some baking on my day off and decided the pears in the current Super 6 at Aldi would be the best thing to use. I did a bit of searching and saw a few different pear cakes but they either needed ingredients I didn't have or I just didn't fancy them. I eventually found one to use as a base and then changed it up a bit to make it my own, and of course, into a loaf cake recipe!

I took one into work on Friday (#CakeFriday, which I totally think we need to make a thing at work!) and it seemed to go down pretty well! :) I've been told it's yummy, has the perfect amount of sugar and have been asked for the recipe too so here it is!



Pear Loaf Cake

Ingredients:

250g Unsalted Butter - Softened
300g Caster Sugar
300g Self Raising Flour
4 Eggs
60ml Milk
1tsp Vanilla Extract
2tsp Baking Powder
1tsp Ground Cinnamon
1tsp Ground Ginger
5-6 Small Pears - Peeled, cored and diced.
Demerara Sugar

Equipment:

Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer
2 Loaf Tins (Or cake tin of your choice)
Wire Rack

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas Mark 4 and grease a loaf tin (or two).
2. In a stand mixer or with an electric whisk, cream together the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix in between.
   
4. Sift in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger and add in the milk a little at a time and mix.
5. Once mixed, pour some of the batter into the loaf tin and then add a layer of the pears. Top with another layer of batter and then another layer of pears, making sure to push them into the batter a little.
6. Sprinkle the top with some demerara sugar.
7. Pop in the oven and baking for about 1 hour 30 minutes, until a knife comes out clean. It is quite a moist cake so might be a little sticky but shouldn't be wet with batter.
8. Carefully turn out onto a wire rack and let cool.
9. Once cooled, slice and enjoy!

Tip:
If your cake seems to be browning too quickly, pop a bit of tinfoil over the top :)

(Please excuse the awful photo, it tastes much better than it looks!)

I got 2 reasonable sized loaf cakes out of this but you could easily do this in any sort of tin you like, you may just have to adjust the cooking times.

I think this one I'll definitely be baking again!

I hope you enjoy it!

Em x