Pear and Mincemeat Crumble Cake


Introduction
- Prep time
- 20 mins
- Cooking time
- 1 hour and 40 mins
- Serves
- Serves 12
- Summary
- Our alternative post-Christmas cake!
- Ingredients:
- 4 firm pears , peeled, cored and cut into small pieces
- 3 tbsp golden caster sugar
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 250g pack salted butter , softened
- 250g golden caster sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5 large eggs
- 200g self-raising flour
- 100g ground almonds
- 7 tbsp plain flour
- 6 tbsp mincemeat

Cooking Method
Put pears into a non-stick frying pan with 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp water.
Cover, then cook over a medium heat for 10 mins until tender, stirring every so often. There shouldn’t be juices once the pears are cooked. Add the spice; leave to cool.
Heat oven to 160°C/140°C fan/gas 3.
Butter then line the base and sides of a 20cm round, deep cake tin.
Put butter, sugar, vanilla and ¼ tsp salt into a large bowl. Beat with an electric hand whisk until pale and fluffy.
Add eggs and flour, beat until smooth, then fold in almonds. Remove 85g batter and put into a small bowl. Into this add the plain flour and chop into the mix with a cutlery knife to make a soft, crumbly-looking mix.
Spoon half the cake mix into the tin, top with half the pears, dot over half the mincemeat, then dollop the rest of the cake mix on top. Scatter with remaining pears, mincemeat, then the crumble mix. Sprinkle with final 1 tbsp sugar.
Bake for 1½ hours, covering with foil after 1 hour, until golden, risen and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 mins, then cool on a rack.