Apple and Pear Cake

For the last couple of weeks my children have enjoyed eating pears, so when I eventually ventured out to the supermarket I bought plenty. Then, as my children often do, they announced they no longer like pears! So I was left with two bags of ripe pears going soft quickly.

Instead of eating them all myself, I chopped up and steamed them all along with a couple of leftover apples and then puréed them. I started off with 8 small pears and 2 medium apples and after they had been puréed I was going to split the quantity in two and freeze them for use in a future cake. I was going to freeze them as I hardly had any plain flour left to make a cake now. When I went to the supermarket early last week there wasn't a single bag of flour on the shelf. 

In the end I just froze one of the portions and decided to experiment with what I had left of the plain flour in combination with other flours I had in the cupboard, desperate times call for a little experimentation! In the end I had about 150g left of plain flour and for the rest I tried 100g rye flour and 50g maize flour. And then I hoped for the best!! It turned out ok! I was quite surprised.

Ingredients

300g plain flour if you've got it! Otherwise you could always experiment!

1 heaped tsp baking powder

125g butter, plus extra for greasing

200g sugar

3 eggs

3 or 4 pears and 1 apple steamed and puréed and then left to cool (this can be done the day before and kept in the fridge)

2 tbsp milk

Cinnamon (optional)

Method

Measure out the flour into a bowl and add the baking powder and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, add the eggs and then the cooled apple and pear purée.

Add in the dry flour mixture to the butter sugar and eggs bowl along with the milk and mix well with a spoon or electric hand whisk for a couple of minutes.

Add the mixture to a lined or greased loaf tin.

Place in the oven and bake for about 45-50 mins, or until well-risen and golden-brown. For muffin size, 20-25 minutes.

After removing from the oven, let cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Enjoy on its own, with ice cream or custard.