Mini Pear and Spice Cakes

These mini muffins require minimum effort but they’re maximum yum! The combination of the pear, nutmeg and cinnamon in the flavour trifecta.

David is a very discerning taste tester. He will not taste a single thing until he has a full list of ingredients. That’s not because he’s got allergies, he’s just fussy. I was very confident that he would not go near these little cakes because they contain pear, and David doesn’t care for pear. Anyhoo, he came home from work, hungry as a bear and asked to try one of these. He ate it, he loved it and then would you believe, he had another! If he wasn’t going to ask about the pear, I certainly wasn’t going to tell! The funny thing is, I even put one in his lunch box the next day, and he was thrilled about it, and he never gets thrilled about finding baked goods in his lunch box. That’s how good these are!

The thing I love about these little cakes is that they require just a few ingredients, take minutes to make and they’re delicious with or without icing.I will never win any prizes for my heavy handed cake decorating skills but I decided to pipe the icing because I need all the practice I can get. Drizzling or spreading the icing would work just as well too.

These mini cakes are perfect for lunch boxes because they’re so freezer friendly and personally I love that they’re so small because surely that means I can eat more of them! Amirite or amirite?

What’s the one thing you won’t eat? With frosting or without?

Makes 24

Ingredients

1 cup (150g) self-raising flour, sifted

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 cup (55g) brown sugar

1 ripe pear, cored, chopped

1/4 cup (60g) milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

ICING

125g cream cheese spread

2 tablespoons icing sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

How to – Traditional

Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan-forced. Lightly grease 18 recesses in mini muffin pans or line with paper cases.
Sift flour and spices together into a bowl. Stir in sugar and pear.
In a jug, whisk milk, oil and egg together. Lightly fold into flour mixture until just combined.
Spoon the mixture evenly into the paper cases and bake 12-15 minutes, until cooked when tested. Cool in pan 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the icing, combine all ingredients in a bowl. Spread or pipe over cakes. Store in an airtight container.

How to – Thermomix

Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan-forced. Lightly grease 18 recesses in mini muffin pans or line with paper cases.
Add all ingredients to TM bowl and mix for 20 seconds on reverse speed 3..
Spoon the mixture evenly into the paper cases and bake 12-15 minutes, until cooked when tested. Cool in pan 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the icing, place all ingredients in TM bowl and mix for 20 seconds on speed 5. Spread or pipe icing over cakes. Store in an airtight container.