Sunday, January 13, 2008

Blueberry and pear cake


Each working week, I make something for my morning tea at work, and either refrigerate or freeze it so that I can keep it fresh for the week. Now that I have a blog of my very own, I try to make something different each week so that I can share what I have made with you.

After discovering Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries just before Christmas, it was a no-brainer that I would start the year making cakes from this book. They are drool-worthy creations that are simple to make and don't have weird and wonderful, hard to source or expensive ingredients. Weird and wonderful is great when you are trying to impress someone else, but I don't have to impress myself - I just want something yummy and filling to have with a piece of fruit to tide me over until lunchtime.

As berry season is currently in full swing in Oz and berries are plentiful and cheap (as opposed to the remaining 10 months of the year when they are scarce and very expensive!), I selected Nigel's blueberry and pear cake for my lunchbox treat this week.

This cake is really easy to make, and has lots of fruit on top so tastes delish - there's nothing more to add.

To make it, you will need:

130g softened butter
130g sugar
4 tinned pear halves cut into small chunks
2 eggs, lightly beaten
130g sifted plain flour
1 teaspoon sifted baking powder
1 punnet blueberries


Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin. Cream the butter and sugar. Gradually beat the eggs into the creamed mixture. Stir in the flour and baking powder, and pour the batter into the prepared cake tin. Top the cake with the blueberries and pears, and bake for 55 minutes or until cooked through. (My cake took about 70 minutes.) Cool the cake for 10 minutes or so in the tin before taking it out of the tin and placing it on a wire rack to cool completely.

I served thick slices of this cake with thick, honey-flavoured Greek yoghurt for dessert at my friend Veronica's place, and it was good. It is also great all by itself as a morning tea treat ;)

11 comments:

Finla said...

Hi hi wish i was you collegue then i would have been able to taste every week a different cake ;-)

Cakelaw said...

Hi Happy Cook, if you were my colleague, we could do a weekly cake exchange;)

Pixie said...

The Kitchen Diaries is my favourite cookbook. It contains such fabulous recipes and I rely on it when I'm stuck on how to cook a particular dish. The blueberry and pear cake sounds delicious; your colleague's are very lucky to have you.

Cakelaw said...

Hi Pixie, I agree that The Kitchen Diaries is a terrific cookbook. I couldn't wait to get back from holidays to start on the recipes in it.

Laurie Constantino said...

Yum, this looks great. One question, how much is a punnet??

Cakelaw said...

Hi Laurie, a punnet is 125g. The original recipe used twice this amount (250g), but I found that a punnet was sufficient.

Rosie said...

You can't go far wrong with "dear" Nigel Slater his The Kitchen Diaries is a great cookbook!!

Gosh I wish I was one of your colleague's to sample all your wonderful goodies that you bring in :D

Rosie x

Mansi said...

I got a glimpse of the Kitchen dairies:) looks good...blueberries are so good for health I often bake muffins with them..never thought of pairing them with pears though:)

nice recipe! thanks for sharing:)

Laurie Constantino said...

Thanks!

Cakelaw said...

Hi Rosie, I agree with you on The Kitchen Diaries - it is a brilliant book!

Cakelaw said...

Hi Mansi, Blueberries are delicious - hope you enjoy the cake if you make it.