Pear & Almond Cake

The last week's been crazy at work and well yes, at home also.
Just when I promised you and myself that I'll start posting more, I got caught up with things at work plus had guests at home.
Today I woke up with baking on my mind. It can't be worse than this on a Thursday morning when one has to rush to work and every single minute of the morning is counted for. But someone somewhere wanted me to bake today. Work was light and I decided to dash out of office as soon as I could with baking still on my mind.
I was missing home ....missing my kitchen. On my way back, I was going through in my mind, all the ingredients I have at home (didn't wanna stop at the market). Yes I did have all the basic ingredients to bake a cake....but which cake? What flavour? What type? ....Fruity... non-fruity? Which fruit? ....and then I remembered I had Pears at home.

I must confess I've never thought very much of that fruit. We buy it among other fruits as part of our healthy eating routine ...nothing more. So what could I do with the modest Pear?
After going through a couple of recipes I came across this really interesting Pear and Almond Cake recipe on Sips and Spoonfuls...... something that I've never attempted to make. An upside down fruit cake. (Oh yes I've never even made the infamous Pineapple Upside Down Cake till date) 
 This is a very interesting and simple recipe by Sukaina, the blog's author. Thank you Sukaina. Thanks to you I've finally baked my first upside down cake. :-)

Though it is a fairly simple recipe, the only tricky part is the demoulding of the cake since the base has caramel  under it. The cake has a lovely texture because of the ground almonds at the same time the cream and vanilla essence balance the flavours well.
The pears not only give a beautiful top to the cake but also obtain a lovely silky texture. I served the cake warm with vanilla ice cream. It would go well even with butterscotch ice cream .
In my mind this is more of a warm pudding than a cake simply because of its non-cakey texture. But I love it all the same !!

So here is the recipe from Sukaina, of Sips and Spoonfuls.

Pear and Almond Cake

Ingredients:

2 Pears (peeled cored and sliced)

3 tbsp Butter at room temperature

½ cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla extract

¾ cup Cream (I used Amul – 1 full cup that is 200ml)

¾ cup Ground Almonds

½ cup Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

For the Caramel

¼ cup Sugar (granules)

4 tbsp Water

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Centigrade. Grease an 8 inch pan.
2. Arrange pear slices in a uniform fashion at the bottom of your cake pan.
3. Heat sugar and water in a saucepan without stirring. You can swirl the pan to aid in mixing until a light amber color is achieved. Don't over caramelise as this will make the topping hard and bitter. Pour this topping evenly over pears.
4. With an electric beater, beat the sugar and butter until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping the bowl when needed.
5. Reduce the speed to low and add the rest of the ingredients.
6. Pour batter over the pears and bake for approximately 30 minutes.
7. The skewer will come out almost clean when done.
8.  Let the cake stand for 5- 10 minutes on a rack and say a prayer before turning it out. (I couldn’t agree more with you Sukaina)

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did...baking and eating this wonderful dessert.