PEAR NUSSKUCHEN

Preparation 35 minutes Cooking 1 hour 30 minutes Serves 8-10 Half of my family hail from Germany and I’ve eaten plenty of great German cakes over the years – a good Nusskuchen is hard to beat. Each autumn, I contemplate the naïve romantic notion of gathering my own hazelnuts from the hedge of coppiced hazel that leads into the orchard; I’ve yet to get there before the squirrels.

100g hazelnuts, plus a few whole ones to decorate 200g unsalted butter 200g caster sugar 4 eggs, plus two egg whites 200g plain flour 4 tbsp milk 1 tsp baking powder 4 tbsp strong coffee 7 pears 2 tbsp caster sugar 1 star anise 300ml double cream icing sugar, to decorate

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan oven) gas mark 4. Grease and line two 20cm cake tins. Blitz the nuts in a food processor until fine. Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy, then whisk in the 4 eggs, one at a time. With a spoon, mix in the nuts, flour, milk, baking powder and coffee. 2 Whisk the 2 egg whites in a separate bowl until they form stiff peaks, then carefully fold into the cake mixture with a metal spoon. 3 Divide the mixture equally between the lined cake tins, then bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out cleanly from the centre of the cakes. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. 4 Turn the oven down to 140°C (120°C fan oven) gas mark 1. To make some dried pear slices for the decoration, firstly cover a baking sheet with parchment, then thinly slice 3 of the pears and spread them on the sheet. Bake for one hour, flipping the slices halfway through. Set aside to cool. 5 Peel, core and chop the remaining 4 pears, then add to a pan with 2 tbsp caster sugar, a splash of water and the star anise. Simmer on low for 20 minutes or so (depending on how ripe your pears are) until the pear has softened but not dissolved to a purée. Cool before using. 6 To assemble, whisk the cream until thick, then spoon over the base cake layer. Spoon a layer of the cooked pears on the cream, then top with the second cake. Arrange the dried pear slices on top with a few hazelnuts, then dust with icing sugar.