Recipe: Simple, fast, delicious... an Upside Down Pear and Almond Cake

This recipe is a time-saver for something lovely. I really wanted cake but was too lazy to make any great effort. I did have a few pears to use up and considered pear and almond tart, but again the thought of making pastry was just too much. So once again a compromise was needed, a mix up of recipes, upside down pear cake but with frangipane, not cake. Simple, fast and delicious.

Upside down pear & Almond Cake

Ingredients

Frangipane

112gr butter

112gr sugar

112gr egg

1tsp vanilla essence

112gr ground Almond

28gr self-raising flour

Caramel base

25gr melted butter

25gr soft light brown sugar

25gr chopped pecans (optional)

Sprinkle of cinnamon

3 or 4 pears peeled cored and cut into thick slices.

Method

• Butter the base and sides of a Pyrex pie dish.
• Beat the butter, and sugar until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides often.
• Mix the eggs and vanilla essence together and add slowly to the butter mixture, beating all the time.
• Next fold in the ground almonds and flour. Set aside.
• Pour the melted butter into the base of the dish.
• Sprinkle with the brown sugar and nuts.
• Arrange the pears over this, the more pears the better so pack tightly.
• Dollop spoonfuls of the frangipane over the pears and spread gently.
• Bake at 180C for about 45 minutes, if the tart starts to get too dark turn down the oven to 170C.
• Eat warm with whipped cream or custard.