Upside-down pear, almond & honey cake

A light almond sponge with lightly caramelised honeyed pears. Utterly delicious!

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I love the retro feel of an upside-down cake and this cake veers into both tarte tatin and syrup sponge pudding territory with the slight caramelisation you get on the pears and the syrupy stickyness that soaks into the sponge.

This is an autumn staple in my house and makes a great dessert when served warm with some custard or whipped cream. It is also lovely served cold with a cuppa.

I make a nut-free version of this cake with my Year 9 students at school each autumn, often with both pears and apples from the school grounds, and it always goes down well. When I make it at home, though, I love to add almonds to the sponge and sometimes a handful of crushed walnuts.

I like to include ginger in this cake for the comforting warmth it brings. Ground ginger works well for a subtle ginger flavour, but if you like more potency, stem ginger from a jar is also great: just a couple of balls of it, finely chopped, added either to the sponge mixture or sprinkled on top of the pears in the tin before you spoon over the sponge mixture. You could even drizzle some of the syrup from the jar over the pears before adding the sponge batter.

Recipe: upside-down pear, almond & honey cake – serves 4-6

Sponge:

• 2 medium eggs
• 100g softened unsalted butter
• 100g caster sugar
•  100g self-raising flour
• 2 rounded teaspoons ground ginger
• 40g ground almonds
• 50ml milk
• 1 teaspoon good quality almond extract

Pear and honey base:

• 2 ripe unpeeled pears: quartered, cored and cut into fairly thick slices
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons soft brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• about 40g ground almonds or roughly crushed walnuts

You will need about an 8” circular cake tin or a rectangular tin (about 8” by 6”), at least an inch deep. It should be greased and base-lined with baking parchment.

(1) Preheat the oven to 170°C (fan).

(2) Add the sliced pears to a small bowl along with with the honey, ginger and salt. Mix gently to avoid breaking up the pears.

(3) Sprinkle the brown sugar into the base of the tin.

(4) Take the pear slices out of the honey mixture and arrange neatly over the brown sugar, overlapping a little if possible.

(5) Spoon all of the remaining honey mixture over the pears. You can also sprinkle over some crushed walnuts if you wish.

(6) Make the sponge by adding all the sponge ingredients to a bowl and beating with a wooden spoon just until it comes together to give a soft mixture.

(7) Spoon the sponge mixture carefully over the pears, trying not to dislodge them. Smooth off the surface and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the sponge is well risen, golden-brown and you see some of the sugar and honey bubbling around the edges.

(8) Leave in the tin for a couple of minutes before placing a large plate or baking tray on top and inverting. The cake will come out of the tin it baked in. Peel off the greaseproof gently. This can now be served hot or left to cool. It also warms up beautifully if eating later: in which case go for about 10 minutes in the oven.