🍁 Maple Pear & Hazelnut Cake 🍐

A moist, nutty cake with caramelized pears and maple warmth—perfect for sweater weather!

🛒 Ingredients

🎂 Cake Base

✔️ 1½ cups all-purpose flour ✔️ ½ cup ground hazelnuts (or almond flour) ✔️ 1 tsp baking powder ✔️ ½ tsp cinnamon ✔️ ¼ tsp salt

🧈 Wet Mix

✔️ ½ cup unsalted butter, softened ✔️ ⅔ cup maple syrup (dark grade for robust flavor) ✔️ 2 eggs, room temp ✔️ 1 tsp vanilla extract ✔️ ½ cup buttermilk

🍐 Toppings

✔️ 2 ripe pears, thinly sliced ✔️ 2 tbsp maple syrup (for glaze) ✔️ ¼ cup chopped toasted hazelnuts ✔️ Powdered sugar (for dusting)

📋 Instructions

1️⃣ Prep & Preheat

Grease a 9" springform pan. Line bottom with parchment.

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

2️⃣ Dry Mix

Whisk flour, ground hazelnuts, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

3️⃣ Cream & Combine

Beat butter + maple syrup until fluffy (~3 mins).

Add eggs one at a time, then vanilla.

Alternate adding dry mix + buttermilk in 3 batches.

4️⃣ Bake

Pour batter into pan. Arrange pear slices on top in a spiral.

Bake 40-45 mins until golden and skewer comes clean.

5️⃣ Finish

Brush warm cake with 2 tbsp maple syrup.

Sprinkle toasted hazelnuts + dust with powdered sugar.

💡 Pro Tips

🔸 Pear prep: Toss slices in 1 tsp lemon juice to prevent browning. 🔸 Extra crunch: Add ½ cup chopped hazelnuts to batter. 🔸 Make ahead: Tastes better next day as flavors meld!

Today is Julie’s Birthday, and even if we’re celebrating this weekend, we had to have cake -my sister loves cake! So, I baked this Hazelnut Butter Cake, made even more festive with the luscious chocolate and honey icing. And since it is still ongoing, this is antepenultimate contribution to my Great Aussie Bake Off Challenge -and yes I’m aware the last series aired in 2019!

Ingredients (serves 8):

3/4 cup hazelnuts

2/3 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup caster sugar

4 tablespoons light muscavado sugar

4 large eggs

3/4 teaspoonHomemade Vanilla Extract

grams/ounces good quality dark chocolate

tablespoons unsalted butter

1 heaped tablespoon pure honey

Hazelnut Brittle pieces

In a medium skillet over a high flame, toast hazelnuts until browned and fragrant, about a  couple of minutes, shaking the pan. Remove from the heat and let cool. 

Place toasted hazelnuts in a food processor, and whizz until finely ground. Stir in flour and baking powder until well-combined. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 165°C/330°F. Generously butter cake tin; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter with caster sugar and muscavado sugar with a wooden spoon, until light, fluffy and pale yellow. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Whisk in Vanilla Extract. Then, gently stir in hazelnut and flour mixture, folding it in until no white spec of flour remains. Spoon batter into prepared cake tin, and level with the wooden spoon.

Place in the middle of the warm oven, and bake, at 165°C/330°F, 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and let cool, about fifteen minutes, before gently turning out onto serving  plate.

In a medium bowl, fitted over a small saucepan of simmering water, melt chocolate with butter until smooth and shiny. Remove from the heat and stir in honey, until completely melted and icing is silky. Gently spoon chocolate and honey icing over hazelnut cake, letting it drizzle on the sides. Arrange pieces of Hazelnut Brittle on top of the cake.

🧡 NUT CAKE 🧡 250 g of flour 200 g brown care sugar 250 g of ground hazelnuts 2 packets of vanilla sugar 1 packet of pudding powder vanilla 5 eggs separated 1 lightly heaped spoon peanut butter 1 packet of baking soda 200 g Crème Fraîche 3 different fats: 125 g butter, 100 ml rapeseed oil, 1 small cube Palmin 180 ° C top and bottom heat (not circulating air), approx. 50 min. (chopstick control)