Pear Cornmeal Pound Cake

We all have a caring, loving and probably sometimes a little crazy mother. I do really love and appreciate mine, but there are times where I just could smile at and hug her because nobody else, or maybe in this case some, would do things like that.
Ok, let me tell you: It was on a nice Sunday and I had bought ingredients for a pretty extravagant and long lasting baking afternoon, including one single cake. I started baking, messing up and mistaking but after some really nice hours in our kitchen I had created a monstrously tasting and looking mix-every-sweet-treat-you-love together cake. It was a little too much mixing in the end, so this recipe won't end up on this blog.
While waiting for that first cake to thicken and to chill, my mother came every ten minutes into the kitchen and asked wether it is already time eating my Sunday afternoon activity. Sadly I had to tell her that she probably would have to wait until the next day, because the thickening process took way longer than expected.

The next thing I heard was a desperately sounding voice reaching my ears: "I was looking forward to your cake the whole day. I even kept myself from making one today. If I can't try this one today you will actually see me stealing a piece."

What was I supposed to do after those words? It was absolutely impossible for me to ruin the cake by eating it at this moment in this undone state. So the only possibility to make my mom happy again, was baking another cake. The only problem: It was Sunday night, we didn't have that many more ingredients for an emergency cake at home and I still had school work to do. There simply was no way leading around baking a second cake. So I searched the pantry for edible contents and came up with a simple but delicious pear cornmeal pound cake.
It was actually that good, I brought a second one into class a couple of days later.

Pear Cornmeal Pound Cake

serves 1 9x5-inch loaf

Ingredients:
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cornmeal (90g)
1 cup all-purpose flour (130g)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened (110g)
1/2 cup granulated sugar plus 2 teaspoons, divided (100g)
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup yogurt (120g)
2 ripe pears, chopped


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of one 9 x 5-inch loaf pan; dust with flour, tapping out excess.
In a medium bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and 1 cup of sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time until just incorporated. Add the vanilla and yogurt; beat at medium speed until combined, about 30 seconds. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed. Fold in 1 1/2 pears.
Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth surface with a spatula. Slice the remaining half pear into ¼-inch-thick slices. Place pear slices straight down the center of the loaf. Sprinkle loaf with remaining 2 teaspoons of granulated sugar.
Bake in preheated oven 55-60 minutes until golden brown or toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool bread in pan on wire rack 15 minutes, then remove loaf from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

Adapted from Sweet Pea's Kitchen