The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Blaeberry pear loaf cake A homage to the peerless bounty of autumn
ON my daily walk to pick up my Herald at the newsagent, I pass some lovely gardens which are ever changing with the seasons. One garden has a beautiful ornamental pear tree, abundant with teardrops of dappled skinned pears. At the corner is a spiky blaeberry bush tangled beside an abundance of bright, bulging rose hips. This moist delicious yoghurt loaf cake is a homage to this autumn bounty…and no, I didn’t pinch the pears.
Ingredients
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
225g soft brown or caster sugar 2 large free-range eggs
140g thick Greek style yoghurt Juice and zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
50g ginger in syrup or crystallised ginger, chopped into small pieces 225g self-raising flour, sifted 1 tablespoon milk
Pinch of salt
150g blaeberries (blueberries or blackcurrants)
2 unripe pears
For topping
2 tablespoons demerara or granulated sugar 2 teaspoons cinnamon Icing sugar for final dusting
Method
Pre-heat oven 180C/Gas 4. Grease and line the baking tin, 1 kg tin, (22cmx 8cmx 7cm) leaving the greaseproof paper longer at the sides to allow you to lift the baked cake out of the tin rather than turn it upside down.
Beat the butter and 225g soft brown or caster sugar together until light and fluffy.
Whisk the eggs separately with a fork and add gradually to the butter mix. Whisk in the Greek yoghurt, lemon juice, zest and the pieces of chopped ginger.
Now add the sifted flour, the salt and the milk and carefully blend everything together to form a thick better. Use a large spoon to gently fold in the berries. Pour into the greased baking tin. Core the pears and cut into slices and then quarters.
Decorate the top of the cake leaving the pear pieces sticking out of the batter. Bake in the middle of the oven for 50 minutes. Mix the demerara sugar and cinnamon together.
Remove the cake and scatter the sugar topping across the surface. Bake for a further 15-20 minutes until the top is firm and a skewer pushed into the middle comes out clean. It is a very moist cake which benefits from being well cooked. Make sure you are checking the cake and not the moisture from the pears.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes or so. Use the overhanging greaseproof paper to lift the cake out of the tin and onto a wire rack to cool.
Serve with Greek yoghurt or swirls of indulgent whipped double cream.