Fleurieu quince and almond cake

Tamara West

Inspired by the enormous fruit on a gnarly quince tree at the old butter factory (a very special Fleurieu location) I came home and poached quinces my favourite way, combining them with almonds in this magical cake. You can double the amounts if you want a higher cake, but I like it thin so you get plenty of quince per slice. Poached quinces can be easily replaced with poached pear quarters.

Ingredients

150 g	Unsalted butter, softened (Main)
125 g	Caster sugar
2	Eggs, medium
½ cup	Plain flour
1 tsp	Baking powder
75 g	Ground almonds
¼ tsp	Ground cardamom
1 tsp	Vanilla extract
6	Quinces, poached, find recipe in notes below

Directions

1. Heat oven to 170C. Grease a 20cm springform cake tin and line the base with baking paper.
2. Cream the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time.
3. Combine the flour, baking powder, ground almonds and cardamom and fold into the mixture with the vanilla extract.
4. Spoon into the prepared tin and arrange quince quarters in a sunburst around the top. Don't press them down, the batter will rise up around them as they cook.
5. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
6. Stand the cake in its tin on a wire rack to cool for a few minutes, then release the tin.
7. Serve warm or at room temperature dusted with icing sugar.

Note

For the slow-cooker poached quinces recipe, clickhere.