Can I Make The Apple And Almond Cake With Pears Instead Of Apples?

Our answer

NIgella's Apple And Almond Cake (from FEAST) is a gluten-free cake that doesn't contain any butter or oil, but still tastes rich and buttery thanks to the apple purée, eggs and almonds.

Apples and pears are not always interchangeable. However, as the apples are cooked to a purée first, it is likely that you could use pears instead. Pears tend to be slightly sweeter than apples and the recipe calls for a tart apple, so we suggest using firm, underripe pears and omitting the 2 teaspoons of sugar from the puree. A whole Braeburn apple weights approximately 120-150g, so you would need to aim for around 400-450g (14ounces - 1 pound) pears to get 285g (1 generous cup) of purée. Pears can also break down more quickly during cooking, so start checking the puree after about 6 minutes of cooking time to see if the pears are soft enough to mash. But please note that as we have not tried the cake ourselves with pears, we are unable to guarantee the results.