Carrot and pear cake

Today we’re getting ready for the snowfall that will probably take us all by surprise (though certainly not the road maintenance crews) on Easter Sunday or Monday. So we dusted our breakfast with snow. Here’s the proof:

That meant we couldn’t spare the carrot and pear cake we had after lunch, either. Somehow it just appeared out of the blue. What’s more, I was convinced Nina wouldn’t like it, and then came the surprise of the day… she ate a huge piece.

Well, yes, but she’d left half her lunch earlier. The cake is very simple, different, less moist than the one in my earlier recipe for carrot cake. More on the savoury side, in the sense of being less sweet. Just right with coffee and as a dessert after lunch. I recommend it.

Recipe facts:

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 35 minutes

Baking temperature: 180 degrees Celsius

Serves: a few to a dozen or so people

Calories: two carrots’ worth

Ingredients for a different carrot cake:

• 1 glass of grated carrot (I chopped mine finely in the blender’s chopping attachment; I needed 5 small carrots)
• 2 medium pears
• 3 hen’s eggs
• half a glass of olive oil
• 1.5 glasses of plain wheat flour
• half a glass of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda 
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
• 8 cloves
• 8 allspice berries
• butter and breadcrumbs (for coating the tin)
• icing sugar (for dusting the cake after baking)

Recipe for carrot and pear cake:

I peeled the carrots and pears and grated them very finely using the blender’s chopping attachment (you could just as easily use the fine side of a grater). I transferred them to a bowl.

I poured half a glass of olive oil into a tall container and cracked in 3 eggs. I mixed everything thoroughly until smooth.

Into a large bowl I put 1.5 glasses of flour, half a glass of sugar, 2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. I added 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and the crushed allspice berries and cloves. I mixed thoroughly.

This made a fairly dry mixture, to which I added the grated carrots and pears. I mixed it. The mixture should now be less stiff.

I greased a tin (about 25 by 35 cm) with butter and coated it with breadcrumbs. I transferred the mixture to it and spread it out carefully and evenly across the whole tin.

I put it in the oven, preheated to 180 degrees Celsius. I baked it for exactly 35 minutes. Then I left it in the oven with the door slightly ajar to cool down. Once it was cool, I took it out and dusted the whole top with icing sugar. The carrot and pear cake is ready. Enjoy!