This is a beautiful, warming loaf cake that tingles the heart, comforts the soul and nourishes the senses. Fresh pears are folded into this butter + yoghurt thick batter, speckled with freshly grounded green cardamom and the result is a lovely tea cake that reminds you a bit of a traditional mithai, but has the crumb of a cake! Deliciously easy to make, an eggless batter means you can serve it up without fear to all generations and most dietary restricted peeps, and for me – it means, I don’t have too much running around to do at the last minute for eggs! I top the cake with a crunchy layer of almond flakes – this is a personal love affair, you can opt out or in with another type of nuts or topping! Just remember, as there are pears – I recommend eat up within a day and half! The Recipe Serves Ingredients 1 ¼ cups flour 1 tsp baking powder ½ tsp baking soda ½ tsp salt 1 tsp cardamom powder 1 ½ pears, peeled, sliced and chopped into approx. 1-2 cm slim pieces ¼ cup brown sugar 1/3 cup castor sugar ½ cup butter, softened 1 tsp vanilla extract ½ cup yoghurt ¼ cup milk sliced almonds for garnish castor sugar for dusting icing sugar for dusting Instructions Preheat oven to 200C Grease and flour a 9-inch loaf tin Whisk the dry ingredients and set aside Cream the butter and sugars until light and airy Then add the vanilla extract yoghurt and milk and whisk for another few minutes Then fold in the dry ingredients to just combine – the batter would be thick, and that is okay Gently fold in the pears Gently transfer the batter into the cake tin, smoothing the top to make even Tap the tin a few times on the surface to remove any air bubbles Sprinkle sliced almonds on top and a few pinches of castor sugar Turn down the oven temperature to 180C and bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the top is browned and the skewer comes out clean Allow to cool on a rack before turning out Optional: drizzle some honey on top or dust icing sugar