Pear Purée Cake

This cake is subtly flavoured with pear, incorporating a pear purée, which is easily made by cooking pears until soft and processing in either a food processor or blender until you have a smooth purée.
I always like the flavour of vanilla with pear so unlike a cake made using apple purée, where cinnamon or clove would be a good addition, I use a little of my home made vanilla extract click here for the recipe. My two chief tasters, Sue & Dick both agreed this cake didn't taste of pear, Dick was prepared to say it tasted a little of pear once he knew it was supposed to, but I have to admit, it's very subtle. The main thing is, this is a perfect recipe for a delicate flavoured Madeira style cake and has less fat in than a conventional Madeira cake.

For this recipe you will need;
300g of Self Raising flour
250g of soft unsalted butter
250g of caster sugar
150g of pear purée
50g of Greek yogurt
4 eggs

1 teaspoon of good vanilla extract (this item was originally missing, until kindly pointed out by a reader, thank you)
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Prepare a 20cm by 10cm round baking tin by lining with baking parchment. Switch on the oven to 180C.
Cream together the butter and caster sugar until fluffy. Add the vanilla, salt and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Thoroughly mix in the pear purée and the yogurt and finally fold in the flour until completely incorporated. Place the mix into the cake tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 1 hour or until a wooden skewer comes out clean when pushed into the centre of the cake. Allow to cool before turning out.

Notes:
The cake has the texture of the best Madeira cake, light and moist with a closer crumb than a sponge cake.