French Pear Cake

Pears are in season and lend themselves to so many wonderful cake and dessert varieties. Thank you to the AWW for the original version of this recipe. It is perfect for afternoon tea served just on its own, or serve with fresh thickened cream or ice cream for dessert. Serves 10.
Cooking time: 1 hour 25 minutes

Ingredients:

40g unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (60g) ground almonds or ground hazelnuts
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups (385g) Castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (125ml) milk
2 cups (300g) self-raising flour, sifted
4 (800g) slightly under ripe pears, cored, sliced thickly
2 tablespoons coffee sugar crystals or demarara sugar
20g unsalted butter,  chopped, extra required

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg. C (160 deg.C fan-forced). Generously grease a 23cm spring form cake pan with the softened butter.Sprinkle in half of the ground almonds, shake them around the pan so they coat the sides and base. Place pan on a baking paper or alfoil lined oven tray.
2. Combine the eggs  and sugar in a food processor; process until combined. Add the vanilla, milk and flour, and process until it forms a thick smooth batter.
3. Transfer the cake mixture to a large mixing bowl; stir in the sliced pears; pour the mixture into prepared pan. Sprinkle top with remaining ground almonds and sugar crystals. Dot with the extra butter.

1. Bake cake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until golden brown and cooked when tested.Cover with foil if it starts to over-brown during baking. Cool in pan for 10 minutes.

Serve the cake warm with double cream or ice cream.

Best wishes

Pauline