Spiced Tea Cake with Mini Mulled Pears

A perfect little heart shaped cake to make for Valentine's Day or any other time you want to show a loved a little bit of love.

serves 10 - 12

what you need

For the cake

170 g coconut sugar

230 ml almond milk

1 vanilla bean, split and sraped

100 ml olive oil

2 flax eggs (2 tbs flax meal + 6 tbs water)

1 cup buckwheat flour

1/3 cup gluten free flour

2.5 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cloves

Icing sugar for dusting

For the mulled pears

A handfull of miniture pears (or any fruit you'd prefer. If using other fruit there is no need to mull them)

500 ml  dry red wine

70 g coconut sugar

2 whole star anise

2 cinnamon sticks

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

2 teaspoons rosewater

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what to do

For the mulled pears

Combine the wine, sugar, star anise, cinnamon and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Add the pears and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, turning occasionally, for 1 hour or until pears are tender. Use a slotted spoon to transfer pears to a heatproof bowl.

For the cake

Preheat over to 180C. Grease your tin.

Make you flax eggs by mixing the flax meal and water together and let sit for 5 minutes.

Place sugar and milk in a saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring regularly, until the sugar has dissolved. Take of the heat and add the vanilla seeds and olive oil. Add the flax eggs and using a bar mix, whiz for a minute of two to get air into you mixture.

Then add the flour, baking powder and spices and whisk to form a smooth batter. Arrange the pears on top and cook for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the tin for a few minutes before gently removing.

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