Vanilla Pear and Raspberry 'Little' Cakes

I promised you the recipe for these delicious little tea cakes. They're a bit of a twist on my favourite muffin recipe.

First you'll need to poach some pears. You only need a couple for the cakes, but do what I do and make a whole lot. You can keep them in the fridge and have them on your muesli for breakfast and with yoghurt for dessert.

Peel, quarter and core your pears. In a saucepan, bring a litre of water and a cup of sugar to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add a lemon, quartered. Scrape the seeds out of a vanilla bean and add the whole lot as well. Then toss in your pears. You can add some more water if you need to. Simmer until the pears are tender. You can tell by piercing one with a knife. It should slip in easily, but not too easily. The cooking time depends entirely on the ripeness of the pears. It may only take a few minutes, it may take much longer. Set the saucepan aside to cool, then transfer the pears and cooking liquid to a container and refrigerate.

Now you can make your cakes.

You need:

1 1/3 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 cup caster sugar

160 g unsalted butter

1 cup natural yoghurt

2 eggs

1 cup raspberries (frozen is more than adequate)

a few poached pear quarters, cut into a large dice

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and sugar. Melt the butter in a saucepan and set aside to cool, then whisk in the yoghurt and the eggs. Pour this mixture into the dry mixture and stir just enough to combine.

Stir through the raspberries.

Spoon batter into a lined half-cup muffin tin. Top each cake with a few pieces of pear.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly brown and cooked through.

Enjoy with a cup of earl grey, in the company of good people, in aid of a very good cause.