I can’t remember at what point in my life I simply accepted the fact that I am a princess, in just about every way. There’s no use denying it. It simply is, and I’ll wear my tiara (some days it’s a full-on crown) proudly. And, on other days, I’ll fill my tiara cake pan with a Vanilla Lemon Pear Cake, simply because I can!
Vanilla Lemon Pear Tiara Cake
Cake:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 Tbs. baking powder
1/4 tsp. sea salt
3/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature
Filling:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
8 oz. Noosa Lemon yoghurt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
fresh pear, very thinly sliced
Preheat oven to 350F and prepare a tiara cake pan with Baker’s Joy spray or a generous amount of oil and flour.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl using an electric mixer) cream together the butter, canola oil and sugar until creamy and well-combined.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Stir in vanilla extract.
In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Using a spatula and gently hand-mixing, alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture, starting and ending with flour mixture and mixing until just combined after each addition. The batter should be smooth and completely combined, but avoid over-mixing.
Pour into the tiara cake pan and bake for about 30 minutes. When the cake is done, the surface should spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out mostly clean with few moist crumbs (no wet batter).
Allow the cake to cool in the cake pan for 10-15 minutes before inverting onto cooling rack to cool completely before filling.
To prepare the filling, combine the butter, yogurt, vanilla, and powdered sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Whir until smooth.
Fill the cooled tiara cake well with the filling and refrigerate for several hours to set.
Once set, decorate the top of the cake with thinly sliced fresh pears.
