One of the glories of autumn

Yet a pear may only be at its point of perfection for a day or two, the slide into over-ripeness can be sudden. Blink and your beloved pear has gone, well, pear-shaped (Nigel Slater).

When we think of autumn fruits we think of plums, of apples and, of course, pears. Pears are a true delight, but, as Nigel Slater says, they are hard to eat just right, neither too hard nor too soft. A tricky but delightful fruit. Last week I bought a bag of pears, as hard as nails, but which promised some sort of joy in the future. Several days later they were still hard, so I decided to bake something with them, and decided on a pear and pecan loaf cake I found by chance (and because I had been lucky enough to find a small packet of pecan nuts in the store cupboard).

Loaf cakes are always so easy to make, and can be so versatile too I find in what you can put in them. I liked the idea of the pears in the cake and decorating the top, along with the pecan nuts for crunch (and protein if you want to pretend a cake can be healthy). The recipe also called for ginger, a spice I adore.

So you will see from above that the greaseproof paper was not particularly straight in the tin when I poured the batter in, but I am far from being a perfectionist, and was not entering the ‘best pear and pecan loaf cake 2020’ competition. The recipe said to top with ginger marmalade, which of course, I did not have handy, so I just left the topping of lightly roasted pears as was.

The taste test: a lovely moist cake, full of flavour, though to my taste there was not enough ginger in it. Easily rectified on a second making.

Make again? Yes

Best with? A cup of tea. No need to add yoghurt or cream on top of the cake.

What have you been baking, if anything, recently?

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