A beautiful cake with subtle flavour blends of sweet and spice from Medjool dates, crystallised ginger stems, candied pears and honey with grated fresh pears. It is lovely on its own but a dollop of fresh cream will not hurt for a bit more of indulgence.

Ingredients
• 115g ( 1 cup) hazelnut meal
• 400 g Medjool dates, pitted, halved
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
• 100 ml extra virgin oil
• 4 eggs
• 130 g ( 1 cup) self-raising flour
• 100 ml raw honey
• 2 tablespoons crystallised ginger, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon syrup from crystallised ginger
• 1 whole candied pear, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 3 medium ripe pears

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan forced) degrees. Lightly grease and line a 23cm springform cake pan.
2. Place dates, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger in a bowl with 130 ml boiling water. Let it stand for 5 minutes to soften dates. Process the mixture until smooth.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine date mixture, hazelnut meal, oil, eggs, flour, crystallised ginger, candied pear and 80ml honey. Mix until just combined.
4. Peel and grate 2 pears then fold through cake mixture.
5. Spoon mixture into prepared pan.
6. Slice remaining pear as thinly as possible. Arrange on top of the cake. Drizzle remaining honey and crystallised ginger syrup on top of pear slices.
7. Bake for 50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the centre comes out clean.
8. Stand cake in pan for 10 minutes then transfer in a wire rack to cool.
9. Serve with fresh whipped cream if desired.