Blueberry and Pear cake recipe by Nigel Slater

So, after making this rather delicious feel good cake, I thought I'd share this recipe with you all. It's Nigel Slater's from his book the The Kitchen Diaries, a cookbook, that is not at all like a cookbook, but rather like a diary, with seasonal food cooking and absolutely gorgeous pictures. And here you'll see some of my own pictures.

Here's the recipe! Enjoy! Also I've made slight variations of this recipe, adding whatever fruit that's in season, a teaspoon of cinnamon and vanilla extract, some brown sugar for a lovely goldenish colour to the cake, all go very well.

Blueberry and Pear cake

Butter – 130 g

Unrefined caster sugar – 130 g

Ripe pears – 2

Eggs – 3

Plain flour – 130 g

Baking powder – a teaspoon

Blueberries – 250 g

A little extra sugar

You can use any fruit you have at hand, apples and peaches work really well too and serve it with fresh cream or vanilla ice cream.

Set the oven at 180 C/Gas 4. Line the base of a square 21-23cm cake tin with a piece of baking parchment, or line with a little butter and flour.

Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy in the food mixer. Whilst this is happening, peel and core the pears and cut them into small chunks. Break the eggs, beat them with a fork, then gradually add them to the butter and sugar. Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold them gently into the mixture. Scrape into the lined cake tin. Rinse the blueberries, then tip them up, together with the pears, on top of the cake mixture. Scatter a couple of tablespoons of sugar over the top. Bake the cake for 55 minutes, then test for doneness with a skewer. If it comes out clean, remove the cake from the oven, then leave to cool for ten minutes.