This is a beautiful, warming loaf cake that tingles the heart, comforts the soul and nourishes the senses. Fresh pears are folded into this butter + yoghurt thick batter, speckled with freshly grounded green cardamom and the result is a lovely tea cake that reminds you a bit of a traditional mithai, but has the crumb of a cake!
Deliciously easy to make, an eggless batter means you can serve it up without fear to all generations and most dietary restricted peeps, and for me – it means, I don’t have too much running around to do at the last minute for eggs! I top the cake with a crunchy layer of almond flakes – this is a personal love affair, you can opt out or in with another type of nuts or topping!
Just remember, as there are pears – I recommend eat up within a day and half!
The Recipe
Serves
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
- 1 ½ pears, peeled, sliced and chopped into approx. 1-2 cm slim pieces
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup castor sugar
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup yoghurt
- ¼ cup milk
- sliced almonds for garnish
- castor sugar for dusting
- icing sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200C
- Grease and flour a 9-inch loaf tin
- Whisk the dry ingredients and set aside
- Cream the butter and sugars until light and airy
- Then add the vanilla extract yoghurt and milk and whisk for another few minutes
- Then fold in the dry ingredients to just combine – the batter would be thick, and that is okay
- Gently fold in the pears
- Gently transfer the batter into the cake tin, smoothing the top to make even
- Tap the tin a few times on the surface to remove any air bubbles
- Sprinkle sliced almonds on top and a few pinches of castor sugar
- Turn down the oven temperature to 180C and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the top is browned and the skewer comes out clean
- Allow to cool on a rack before turning out
- Optional: drizzle some honey on top or dust icing sugar
