Hazelnut Pear Espresso Cake #thecakeslicebakers

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is The New Way To Cake by Benjamina Ebuehi. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th of the month we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

It is a new year and a new book - The New Way To Cake - and our choices for November 2020 were ~ 

Hazelnut, Pear & Espresso Cake

• All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Making Miracles
• My Recipe Reviews

Hot Chocolate and Halva Pudding

• A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• A Little Bit of All Right
• Amandie Bakes
• Sweet Sensations

Double Ginger and Grapefruit Cakes

• Camille Cooks
• Karen's Kitchen Stories

This was absolutely a lovely cake to make and enjoy! I feel like it's very "coffee cake"-esque; with the flavors of fruit and coffee blended in. It would go wonderfully on a brunch table, and is just perfect with a cup of tea or coffee! 

I love cakes like this that have warm flavors, and aren't overly sweet so I absolutely loved this cake. The bits of crunchy hazelnuts adds the perfect touch of texture to the cake, and the sliced pears on top are such a pretty touch! There's really nothing I would change about this one, and I would definitely make it again.

The batter smells sooo good - it almost has a caramel flavor and color to it before baking, thanks to the color and flavor infusion from that instant espresso!

Hazelnut Pear Espresso Cake

Ingredients

2/3 cup blanched hazelnuts

3/4 cup plus 2 TBS sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp instant espresso 

3/4 cup butter, melted

2 Bosc pears, divided

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9" round cake pan with baker's spray.
2. Toast the hazelnuts on a baking tray in the oven for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool and reduce oven temp to 350 degrees.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, blend the eggs, sugar, and vanilla until well combined. Stir in the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and instant espresso. Mix to combine into a smooth batter.
4. Peel one of the pears and dice into small pieces and gently fold them into the batter. Roughly chop up about 3/4 of the toasted hazelnuts and fold them in as well.
5. Scrape batter into the prepared cake pan.
6. Cut the other pear in half (leave the skin on), use a spoon to scoop out the core and thinly slice the pears. Arrange them however you'd like to decorate the top of the cake and sprinkle the remaining hazelnuts around the pears. 
7. Bake 40-45 minutes until cake is risen and golden brown, and a toothpick or skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Set on a cooling rack and cool in the pan 10-15 minutes before carefully turning out of the pan to complete cooling on the rack.
8. Allow to cool completely before slicing and serving.