A lovely light cake using autumnal fruits and vanilla. This pear and raspberry crumble cake is a perfect bake for tea time after a wet and windy walk, after a busy day at school or for a Sunday lunch pudding.
I have used a special flour called Sorghum, which is naturally gluten free and is rich in polyphenols that help to build a healthy microbiome and reduce systemic inflammation. It is one of the key crops grown in North Africa and is rich in magnesium, zinc as well as Vitamin B1 and B6. You can easily swap this for other flours (see cooks tips).
For a cake, this is quite high in protein, and my husband thinks this is all he needs for a balanced meal! 😂 This cake is suitable for children aged 2 years plus who can eat independently, as it’s naturally a bit crumbly and needs to be eaten with a fork or a spoon.
- 25 g Unsalted Butter (soft and room temperature)
- 1 tbsp Coconut Sugar (or light muscovado sugar)
- 3 Pears (peeled, cored & sliced)
- 125 g Raspberries (fresh or fozen)
- 100 g Sorghum Flour
- 25 g Porridge Oats
- 50 g Coconut Sugar (or light muscovado sugar)
- 75 g Unsalted Butter (soft and room temperature)
- 20 g Pumpkin Seeds
- 125 g Unsalted Butter (soft and room temperature)
- 100 g Coconut Sugar (or light muscovado sugar)
- 2 Eggs
- 125 g Sorghum Flour
- 0.5 tsp Xanthan Gum
- 50 g Almonds (ground)
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Pinch of Salt
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C (160 degrees fan assisted).
- Grease a 20cm diameter loose bottomed circular cake tin with a little butter (there should be just enough left from one pack of butter once you have weighed out the ingredients) and line with some baking paper.
- Start with the pear topping and melt 25 grams of butter in a saucepan until it is bubbling a little. Then add in the coconut sugar and the pear slices and cook for 3 minutes until soft, golden and syrupy. Set aside to cool.
- Next, it’s the crumble topping. You measure the sorghum flour, coconut sugar, butter, oats and pumpkin seeds into a bowl and with your fingers rub the mixture together until it forms a chunky crumbly mixture.
- Finally, you prepare the base of the cake using a mixing bowl and an electric whisk. Whisk the butter and sugar for about 2 minutes and then beat in one egg at a time. Then add in the sorghum flour, xanthum gum, ground almonds, baking powder and vanilla essence and whisk again for 30 seconds.
- Pour the base mixture into the lined cake tin and flatten gently with a spoon so it is evenly distributed. Then gently place the pears and syrup onto the base, spreading evenly and sprinkle on the raspberries. Lastly, sprinkle over the crumble topping.
- Bake in the oven for 55 minutes, checking the cake at 45 minutes using a skewer to check it is baked through. The crumble topping should be a golden brown.
- Leave to cool in the cake tin on a cooling rack. Remove from the cake tin and serve with Greek yoghurt or cream or coconut yoghurt.
- You can buy sorghum flour online or at health food shops. It is sometimes referred to as sweet white sorghum. If you don’t have sorghum to hand then you can easily use organic plain wheat flour, spelt flour, or a gluten free flour blend. Omit the xanthum gum with the wheat and spelt options.
- Nut free – swap ground almonds for coconut flour
- Dairy free – swap butter for an organic dairy free spread
- Egg free – swap eggs for 2 tablespoons ground flax seeds with 3 tablespoons of water
