Honey, Pear and Pistachio Cake

I go to Paris in 2 hours, so I thought, 'what better time to do a blog post?'

Silly me...... please bare with for all the pictures!

These pears below tastes amaazing, J'adore pears..... just brushing up on my French skills there.

I tried to pick my favourite, but out of 300 it was pretty difficult (mental not, take less pictures), I also didn't have time to edit them really (second mental note, DON'T right blog posts 2 hours before you have to leave for France!)

Speaking of France, I am very super excited indeed, I just wanted to get this post out of the way before I go. The itinerary sounds great, we're going to the Eiffel tower, notre dame, arc de triomphe, pompidou (I love to say that pom-pid-ooo), the louvre and some other places I've never heard of.

What am I looking forward to? THE FOOD OF COURSE! 

Picnics everyday for lunch, boulangeries, patisseries, croissants, freshly baked baguettes, croque monsieur (they are not just a cheese toastie!), macaroons! And maybe not steak tartar.... I've never seen the attraction in raw steak. Do you have a favourite French food or meal? I can nae pick one! Or even a place in Paris you could suggest for me?

That reminded me, good job I'm going on a school trip to Paris were the weather forecast is 30oC and sunny because my summer holiday is going to be in Scotland! Don't get me wrong, I love Scotland, it's just I don't think I'll get many chances to wear my play suit and summer dresses.

I also helped out with catering for a wedding yesterday with my Auntie and her friends, I never realised just how much organisation and planning went into it. My Auntie had lists for lists, a list for each individual person, a time line for the day and several time lines and lists leading up to the day. It was fun though!

There was also masses of food left so I took some home,. Three words: smoked mango chicken. That is all. It is beautiful. 

So I guess I'll finally get talking about this gorgeous cake! I probably should have done that at the start of the post... ahh well.

This cake batter has a really strange consistency; it is really quite thick. This makes the cake a bit dense but really moist. And as you eat it you find little lumps of gold, otherwise known as pistachio nuts, moist slices of fresh pear and pieces of zingy lemon zest floating around in your mouth. Oooh it's good, so good I had a slice for breakfast. 

It's best served warm, straight from the oven with some cream on the top, and should really be eaten pretty soon after baking, 3 days max probably but I really don't see how it could last that long!

Honey, Pear and Pistachio Cake

• 150 grams of plain flour
• 100 grams of wholemeal flour
• 3 teaspoons of baking powder
• 125 grams of diced chilled butter
• 125 grams of Castor sugar
• 2 eggs
• 40 grams of chopped pistachio nuts + extra to top with
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 2 ripe pears (any will do, so long as they're fresh and taste good!)
• honey to drizzle 

1. preheat the oven to 190oC/  375oF/ gas mark 5, grease and line a 8inch cake tin
2. mix together the flours and baking powder, rub the butter into the mixture until it looks like breadcrumb (you can do this in a food processor) 
3. add in the eggs and sugar, beat until combined before adding in the lemon zest, juice and pistachio nuts
4. pour the mix into the cake tin, core and slice the pears and layer over the top of the mix (as shown above)
5. pop in the oven for 45- 50 minutes, once out drizzle with honey immediately. If your honey is quick thick you can heat it a little in a sauce pan first. and top with chopped pistachio nuts
6. allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin and eating with cream!