Chocolate, Pear and Fig Loaf Cake with Toasted Almonds

This is a good starter loaf cake for aspiring cooks, and is one of my favourite recipes. It is equally delicious served with coffee, tea, cocoa or my personal choice, a chai latte. Morning or afternoon, book club or bake sale, this cake will not disappoint.
Replace the figs with cranberries or pecan nuts for a versatile recipe to add to your collection. Have a great weekend!

225g vanilla sugar
100g butter
2 XL eggs
1t almond extract
250g self raising flour
pinch of salt
1/2t ground cinnamon
2 pears peeled and cut into bite size pieces
200g dark chocolate
100g dried figs

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a medium size loaf tin.
Cream the sugar and butter until pale and light in texture. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the almond extract.
Sift the flour, cinnamon and salt. Add to the batter. Stir in the pears, chocolate and figs. Pour into the loaf tin and bake at 180C for 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then remove to cool completely on a wire rack.

Icing
50g white chocolate
150g icing sugar
flaked almonds to decorate

Melt the chocolate. Stir in the sifted icing sugar. Drizzle over the cake. Scatter over the flaked almonds.
Cooks note: you may need to add more/less icing sugar, depending on the chocolate used. Add a little at a time until you achieve a pouring consistency. The icing will harden slightly as the chocolate cools.