Some friends were coming over for “Merienda” which is afternoon tea in Spain, so it was a good opportunity to bake a cake. My Spanish pals do make me smile as when we get together for coffee and cakes, they always mention what a lovely English custom it is. I smile and agree, secretly thinking that I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of occasions I stopped for a proper afternoon tea when I lived in England. Oh well, I am certainly making up for it now.
This is a quick cake to pull together. Sometimes it takes longer for the oven to warm up than it does for you to prepare the cake batter.
Ingredients (serves 10-12 slices)
- One large pear, peeled, halved, quartered and then each quarter cut into three or four pieces
- 1 ½ cups of self raising flour, ½ cup of ground almonds, a pinch of salt, a cup and a half of sugar all mixed together in a bowl
- 3 large eggs, ½ a cup of vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon of almond essence, 2 shots of very strong cold espresso, half a cup of natural yogurt beaten together until well blended
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix gently with a wooden spoon. Using a large cake tin (mine was silicone, so no need to line but I sprayed with a little oil) line the base with the pear slices to form a circular pattern.
Pour over the cake better and smooth out the mixture.
Bake at 180ºC for about 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin. Eat warm or cold. Keeps well for a few days – which is good as it is quite a large cake!
Chica Andaluza 
Oh my dear Chica, this one fascinated me at first my eyes and with these almonds and pears… I will try to make it. Thank you so much, have a nice new week, love, nia
Thank you so much Nia – you haven´t been posting recently have you..we miss you! Have a lovely week too 🙂
You are welcome dear Chica, actually I post as always… Maybe you don’t have information mails. Thank you, with my love, nia
Thanks for letting me know Nia – I will have to check as I popped over to your blog several times in the last few weeks just to see what you had been up to. Maybe I have clicked on the wrong button!
That sounds truly wonderful…my daughter was asking me for a recipe with pears just a few days ago, too!
I shall send her this way!
Do hope she enjoys it…I love pears!
I hope you won’t be insulted if I leave the espresso out – I love a good coffee, just not in cakes – I am a strange gal, I know. The end result is so very pretty. I also love the way Merienda rolls off the tongue.
🙂 Mandy
Not insulted at all – I am honoured if anyone is inspired by any of my recipes…the rest is down to them! I am not a huge chocolate fan, but if you are I think a few teaspoons of cocoa powder would go well with the pears!
Beautiful, simple, pretty, quick, and looks tasty too. Lucky friends 🙂
My kind of baking…easy!
I’m presuming I could make this with apples instead ?
Excellent looking cake, and I love pears. You’re right about the tea thing. I don’t remember tea and cake in my adult life in the UK, but the French are mad for it:)
It´s true…it seems a more popular custom outside of the UK!
Beautiful cake.
Thank you so much!
Its super pretty AND has espresso in it!!! Its a cake of dreams 🙂 Must. Get. To. An. OVEN!!!
Oh dear, it´s tough sometimes without an oven (I know, I had to survive here for a while with just a two ring burner!).
Oh my. This has everything I love and it’s quick and easy too. You are tempting me from the straight and narrow! ;’)
Sorry Evie…just tuck the recipe away for later in the year!
Ooooh! Never apologise for lovely cake recipe. A friend lost her beloved dog today so the girls are planning coffee and cake for her and I plan to make this. x
Oh your poor friend, it´s tough to lose a pet. Hope this manages to bring a little cheer to the gathering! Let me know how it goes.
That looks beautiful 😉
I did go out to tea regularly, on Saturdays, in the very early 80’s, when my stomach was as flat as a pancake. Patisserie Valery was then an independent cake shop with a dark room at the back with cakes on the table, you helped yourself and later declared what you’d eaten. Fortnum’s and Harrods were also fairly cheap in those days in comparison to today and we’d occasionally visit them too. I seem to remember that Harrods did an all you could eat tea for a fiver!
I don´t think I´ve ever had a stomach as flat as a pancake 😦 I do remember taking my mum to tea at Fortnum´s with my very first wage from my Saturday job selling cashmere jumpers in the Burlington Arcade. I was a very posh Saturday Girl!
This cake looks so perfect, I love pears…..lucky friends you have!
They enjoyed it and so did I because I adore pears too!
🙂
It looks perfect for my afternoon coffee today!
Coffee cake with coffee…perfect!
Yum!!! This looks marvelous. I think that high tea and siestas should be customs in all societies (but then again, when would I have the time for them?)
High tea and siestas should be compulsory….now wouldn´t that be lovely!
We only appreciate the customs which aren’t our own. And neglect those which apparently are. 🙂
You´re probably right there…I am sure we are all guilty of this at some time or another!
Ooooh… now this is such a pretty cake.. I love how the pears pinwheel around the top and the fresh crumb around them.. scrumptious! A perfect tea cake!!
Yes, fortunately it turned out of the tin in a very well behaved fashion!
Well done, Tanya! This cake looks like something we non-Brita envision y’all being served while sipping tea from the most delicate of tea cups. In short, I bet your friends were duly impressed. 🙂
I was wearing lace gloves too and one of those things that looks like a doily on my head. Oh…wait a minute…I slipped into Jane Austen-ville there for a moment 😉
It’s true – the great institution of “afternoon tea” isn’t what it was. However, a cup of tea and some pieces of toast around 4 or 5pm is a real pick-me-up!
That cake looks beautiful, and so fluffy too… I can just see all the little air pockets from the outside!
Hot buttered toast – yummy! And the air bubbles on the cake – they always seem to show more when I use the silicon mould. Not sure if it´s a good or bad thing, but it tasted good which, I guess, is the most important!
Short and sweet… love it!
The best way!
Sounds fantastic! I love the look of this!
It was a pretty looking cake!
Everything mixed together at the same time. My sort of recipe. And some of my favourite flavours. If it’s a big cake, I just might try it in an oblong tin with two rows of pears. Then I can cut it in half and try one half in the deep freeze. Don’t know how the pears might turn out though. Husband is more of an afternoon tea type than me – and then he won’t eat much for dinner. Oh well, there’s a silver lining to everything. 🙂
Like the idea of the long tin, could try that too as it was pretty big! Big Man is like your husband, except after no wanting to eat dinner he then gets the “Midnight Munchies”!
Thanks for sharing this lovely recipe =)
You´re welcome, glad you liked it!
I love the look of the cake top and I am sure the taste was a perfect match.
I only eat pears raw, have never baked with them or used them in anything really and I think I need to change that
Pears don´t tend to be used that often in cakes or pastries (at least, not as often as apples). I love pears – raw, cooked, peeled, unpeeled!
Hi T, Looks delicous.
Florence x
Despite its size, it didn´t last long 😉
Another gorgeous recipe *saved* thanks, Chica!!!
Hope you like it, can imagine you making it in one of your lovely pots!
Omg this is gorgeous! I make something very similar, but yours has wayyyyyyy less calories! I am definitely giving it a try!
I suppose because it has no butter it´s a little healthier than some cakes – still tastes great though!
I love the cakes that you prepare…they sound simple and delicious. Hopefully I’ll get some pears off our trees before the porcupines this fall. This would be a terrific way to use some.
My cakes do tend to be pretty simple as they are usually last minute! You could make it with some of your lovely apples too 🙂
What a luvley little cake luv!
Thanks Darlin´!
¡Qué pinta más buena! Me parece que este fin de semana tomaremos esta delicia from up the montain 😉 Me encanta la decoración
Espero que lo disfruteis!
This is my first time on your lovely blog! This cake looks heavenly! I’m adding you to my google reader so I don’t miss any of your posts. Have a great day!
Welcome and thanks for your lovely comment! Hope you continue to enjoy 🙂
I must only try this recipe when I feel I can afford to eat the entire thing by myself in one sitting, because it looks ridiculously delicious. In reality, that would be never, but it’s all about convincing myself, no? 😉
xo
It would be quite a challenge to eat it all…but it would be enormous fun trying!