My standard Sunday begins as so. I will wake up a little later than planned and spend a horribly long time getting out of bed. I have got better at this however and can normally make it down the stairs before 10am. I am then greeted by Willow and her endless breakfast requests. This morning waffles were on the agenda. After a very slow feast and plenty tea I look at the list I have made for myself to do. Today I had grand plans of packing and organising and matriculating and all the other boring tasks that are involved when moving. I was going to sort my prints, begin the bake off scrapbook I have been threatening to do for the last month and then write up the six blog posts waiting in my drafts. I was then going to top this off with some accounting and general finicial sussing out. Needless to say not a single one of those things happened. Instead I spied to pears, knocked up a cake with a recipe I had never even dreamt of before and photographed it. I also made a million other things and snapped then here. Had it not been for the fact that this cake worked amazingly well for the first time, required next to no tweaking and made my mumma very happy I would have thought this had been a truly unproductive day. But no I made a tasty cake and the sun shone. Happy Sunday all!PS this happiness will slowly fade when I realise early tomorrow morning I still have my long list of things to do, sign my lease, get a haircut blah blah blah. Let me cheery for the remaining wee hours of the night.
PEAR, COFFEE AND HAZELNUT CAKE
250g softened unsalted butter
200g coconut sugar or dark muscavado
50g caster sugar
200g plain wholemeal flour
50g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
100g + 25g roughly chopped hazelnuts
3 tsp instant coffee + 3 tbsp boiling water (or three espresso shots of possible)
3 pears
3 tbsp apple juice
Grease and line a 9" cake tin and set aside. Preheat your oven to 180C.Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the flours, baking powder, eggs and 100g of the hazelnuts and set aside without mixing. Make the coffee and allow to cool slightly in a mug. Finely slice the pears - there is no need to peel them. Place the pears in a bowl with the apple juice to prevent them from browning. Add the cooled coffee to the cake mix and fold it all together until smooth. By mixing it later on (or as close to baking as possible) the baking powder won't activate to soon and you will have a lighter texture when baked. Pour into the lined tin. Working quickly layer the pear on top of the cake mix and sprinkle with the remaining nuts like this. Put into the oven immediately. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a thin knife comes out the centre clean. The majority of the pears will sink slightly into the cake but don't worry as this will provide a little moisture to the cake. Serve with some yoghurt or ice cream while still warm for a great pudding or enjoy once cool with a cup of tea or coffee.