Sunday 20 January 2013

Pear and Almond Cake


It’s always difficult to start again in the New Year. Not just resuming work, the gym and everything else that's been totally ignored whilst we happily vegetate on sofas for 2 festive weeks - but cooking too (especially when your camera cable goes walkabout). We've grown accustomed to nibbling on cold leftovers and Quality Street or grazing on bits and pieces from the fridge. As a result the idea of whipping up a huge cake or batch of yet more cookies seems bizarre. The food magazines are full of healthy living, salads and superfoods… yet its snowing outside and you’re craving something carby. Especially when in my house there's still an untouched Pannetone, 2 Christmas puddings and a hunk of Christmas cake left to eat. The relaxed seasonal eating style has been reflected in my cooking recently - some irresistible yet super simple cheddar and chorizo straws, dulce de leche shortbread sandwiches for relatives and these ridiculously moreish cheese crackers. All good food that makes for excellent snacking, but a tad out of place on the blog in January.
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I think this cake is a happy medium. It’s simple, isn’t too rich and contains fruit to be mildly healthy if you have strict New Year’s resolutions still going strong and is really comforting in snowy weather. This cake slightly unnerved me whilst in the oven as it properly filled the tin right up to the top, but as the pears sunk into the mixture it just about stayed constrained. The recipe can be found here, it comes from the trusty Good Housekeeping magazines – after sorting through 3 years of GH magazines the recipes are now all neatly in one big tempting lever arch file so expect more recipes from there soon! Including my first attempt at candy making with a batch of tablet – pretty much pure sugar and therefore unsurprisingly delicious and addictive…Coming soon!

7 comments:

Dewi said...

I absolutely love pears in any form. Let it be cakes or pies, of course yours cake wit almond sounds really superb!

The Caked Crusader said...

Pear and almond is one of my all time favourites - this looks a lovely cake

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

A wonderful cake! Pears are so versatile and delicious.

Cheers,

Rosa

La Table De Nana said...

It looks gorgeous Lucy:-)
BTW..those crackers are still some of our faces..
Have a great year.

Dipika @ The Very Hungry Baker said...

Love the look of this!

Jo said...

I love an almond cake so this is right up my street. The slices of pears look really pretty.

Glad your first shot at tablet was successful. It can be tricky stuff. I make it every year for christmas but still have the occasional disaster with it! I love dipping my spoon in when the mixture is thick and bubbling. So sweet but so sticky and good!

Jules said...

AH! i've been looking for a younger person who likes to bake and blog! i'm so excited i found you:) i love baking, and want to make it a career and so happy that i found someone with the same interests.
jules from www.myladybakes.com
:)