Pear and Cinnamon Yoghurt Cake

This recipe is truly simple and pears are in season so I'm making this for Simple and in Season hosted by Ren of Fabulicious Food. It's a mix everything together type of cake with no fancy equipment required. The longest time taken (apart from baking) was pre-heating my oven (it's very slow) and preparing the pears. You can have this cake in the oven in 10 minutes flat, no kidding. The result - absolutely amazing in terms of smell and taste.  I love the smell of baking but even more when there's cinnamon involved!  The cake itself is light and moist and I love the crunch and sweetness of the pears. You can substitute the pears for apples or plums. 

 My cake tin is on the small side so I used the 'extra' half pear to fill the gaps 

 sprinkle with a generous amount of cinnamon and some brown sugar 

 freshly baked 

Recipe adapted from honeyandsoy
3 pears, peeled and cut into halves
2 eggs
250mls yoghurt
160g sugar
80mls vegetable oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
300g flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon, plus extra for sprinkling (optional)
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon brown sugar for sprinkling

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Grease and line a 25cm cake tin.  (Mine is only 20 cm so I had half a pear left which I used to fill the gaps)
• In a large bowl, mix together the yoghurt, sugar, oil, honey and vanilla. 
• In another bowl, sift the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda.
• Peel and core the pears and then cut them in half. 
• Add the flour mixture to the yoghurt mixture and combine gently. 
• Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin.
• Top with pear halves.
• Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon on top.
• Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.