Light Pear & Hazelnut Cake

📝 Ingredients

• 3 ripe but firm pears (about 180 g each)
• 3 eggs
• 70 g caster sugar
• 125 g plain yoghurt
• 30 ml rapeseed oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 150 g plain flour
• 100 g hazelnuts (80 g for the batter, 20 g for the top)
• 1 sachet baking powder (11 g)
• 1 pinch of salt
• 10 g unsalted butter (for the tin)

🍴 Utensils

• 22 to 24 cm round baking tin
• Mixing bowl
• Whisk
• Spatula
• Blender or food processor
• Peeler

📖 Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (170 °C fan). Butter the tin, then dust it lightly with a pinch of the measured flour, turning it upside down and tapping to remove the excess.
2. Blitz 80 g of the hazelnuts into a fine powder in 2-second pulses, without overdoing it: blended for too long, they turn into an oily paste. Roughly chop the remaining 20 g with a knife and set aside for the top.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar for 2 minutes, until pale and slightly frothy. Add the yoghurt, oil and vanilla, and whisk until smooth.
4. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, ground hazelnuts and salt. Tip onto the egg mixture and fold in with a spatula, just until there are no traces of flour left: overmixing would make the cake dense.
5. Peel the pears with a vegetable peeler, quarter them, remove the cores and pips, then cut each quarter into 5 mm slices. Cut a third of the slices into small dice and gently fold them into the batter.
6. Pour the batter into the tin and smooth the top. Arrange the remaining pear slices in a rosette, pressing them lightly into the batter, then sprinkle with the chopped hazelnuts.
7. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes on the middle shelf, until the cake is golden and a knife inserted in the centre comes out dry. If the top browns too quickly, cover it with a sheet of foil halfway through.
8. Leave to cool for 15 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack: very moist thanks to the pears, the cake may break if turned out piping hot. Serve warm or cold.