PEAR AND ALMOND CAKE

Another blinder of a recipe for you lovely lot! I'm not going to lie, pear and almond is not something I ever would have thought of putting together in a cake before... but I had some pears leftover in one of my veg box deliveries and couldn't think what else to do with them.

After scouring for some inspiration, I came across a few recipes for pear and almond cakes or slices, so taking a mixture of a few of them, I made my own.

This was super popular when I posted it on my stories a couple of weeks ago and I had loads of messages asking me for the recipe, so here it is.

INGREDIENTS

Cake -

• 225g caster sugar

• 225g butter

• 3 medium eggs

• 125g self raising flour

• 75g ground almonds

Topping -

• 2 pears

• 15g flaked almonds

• 3 tbsp demerara sugar

EQUIPMENT

8" round cake tin

Baking paper

METHOD

• Preheat your over to 160 (fan) and line your tin with baking paper

• Cream butter and sugar together then add eggs one by one, mixing in between each one to avoid curdling

• Sift flour then fold in with ground almonds

• Pour mixture into cake tin and level off, put in centre of oven and bake for 20 minutes

• While it is baking, prepare your topping. Peel and core your pears then slice thinly (I find the easiest way is to quarter the pears then slice to a couple of mm)

• When the cake has baked for 20 minutes, remove from oven to do the topping

• You need to be quick here to avoid a sunken sticky mess!

• Quickly place the pear slices in uniform layers on the top, they will sink a little bit, don't panic! Once you have your pears on the cake, sprinkle your flaked almonds all over and then the demerara sugar to finish

• Place back in the over and cook for a further 50-55 minutes, you will know it is cooked when it is a lovely golden colour and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean

• Leave the cake to cool for about 15 minutes in the tin then transfer to a wire rack

I find it is best eaten still slightly warm, or at room temperature... and if you are feeling particularly indulgent, a little drop of cream would be the perfect accompaniment.

Enjoy

L x