This is just another version of my frangipane cake* – a cake made with a frangipane base of butter, sugar, eggs and ground almonds. I love this cake and make it often – it’s a food processor cake and very simple.
I used pears as the fruit flavour. At the end of winter in Sydney pears are juicy and plentiful and create a really moist cake.
Ingredients
2 pears
150g butter
150g sugar
3 free range eggs
I teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla paste
1 teaspoon almond essence
100g – 125g ground almonds
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
A handful of flaked almonds to scatter on top of the cake
Method
Preheat oven to 170 degrees C, 160 degrees C fan forced.
Peel the pears and poach whole in a sugar syrup in a saucepan until they are just soft. The sugar syrup is enough water to cover the pears with 1/2 cup sugar.
Remove the pears from the syrup and cool. Discard the syrup or you could reduce and use as a sauce for the pears.
Combine butter and sugar in a food processor, with vanilla extract or paste and almond essence. Add eggs one at a time. Mix well. Fold in ground almonds, plain flour, baking powder and salt.
Put mixture into a greased flan dish, or cake tin lined with baking paper.
Cut the pears into neat slices and place on top of the mixture. Scatter the flaked almonds on top.
Bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the cake.
Cool in the tin. You could serve direct from the flan dish if using, or turn out out carefully from the cake tin as I did.
*See also my Apricot Almond Cake, Frangipane Tart and Cherry Frangipane Tart
The Quirk and the Cool 