Quick pear cake

A one-bowi wonder, adaptable to many fresh or bottled such as plums, apricots or apples. You may think it's a lot of powder (as I did) but it seems to need the oomph -to hold up the fruit.

INGREDIENTS

150g icing sugar

150g softened butter

150g plain flour

3 eggs

1 tbsp baking powder

dash vanilla essence

2 pears

white, raw, brown or coffee sugar, for sprinkling

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 200C.

• Combine all ingredients except fruit and additional sugar in a bowl or food processor until creamy and pale.

• Spoon into a greased 20cm tin (springform if you have one).

• Peel and quarter pears. Layer gently on top of the batter and bake for about 45 minutes or until cooked. Sprinkle sugar over after about 20 minutes. If the cake is browning too quickly cover with tin foil.