When I was at our local fruit and veg place (‘go’ the West St shops, you rock the cheap produce) I spotted a bag of ripe pears and as on a budget decided to grab them and to make something interesting.

A quick search online produced this recipe from www.honeyandsoy.com, who adapted it from Chocolate & Zucchini ( have I mentioned how much I love the internet, it is like one big family of sharing and caring, well mostly…anywhoo..). I have changed this recipe as well to incorporate Agave syrup as usual….but gee it tastes nice. If you do no want to use Agave replace with one cup of castor sugar and 1/3 cup vegetable oil.

This is in fact my second try as the first was a little soggy, but I worked out it was the rack height in the oven…Ours is about 40 years old and getting a little soggy itself in the door seal area 🙂

Pear and Nutmeg Yoghurt Cake

2 pears

2 eggs

1 cup whole milk plain unsweetened yoghurt

1/3 cup Agave syrup, light

2 cups plain flour (I used 1 cup Spelt)

1 tsp ground nutmeg ( or cinnamon)

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180° C (350° F). Line the bottom of a round 25-cm (10-inch) cake pan with parchment paper and grease the sides.

In a large mixing-bowl, gently combine the yoghurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda.

Peel the skin off the pears, core them and cut them into quarters. (It is important to only peel the pears just before you bring the batter together so they don’t brown.)

Add the flour mixture into the yoghurt mixture, and blend together — don’t overwork the dough. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and top with pear quarters. Sprinkle over with brown sugar. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Let stand for ten minutes, and transfer onto a rack to cool.

…I ate it warm with cream and ice cream, soooo yummy.