Pear and almond butter cake, birthday baking!

It was my birthday the other week, and I decided I wanted cake.  Anto offered to make one but he was very busy at work that week and I was already making him his Cadbury Creme egg cupcakes so Astrid and I decided to do the cake making at the same time.

The recipe we used is here on our recipe blog, should anyone wish to try it for themselves.

Pears are still in season and I like cakes with fruit in them and had been meaning to give this recipe a try for awhile. Caramelised pear, chocolate and almonds, you can't go wrong!

The first step was to caramelise the pear in the butter and brown sugar mix. They started out looking (and smelling good) and ended up lovely and golden and smelling divine.  If they weren't too hot I might have eaten them all then and there!

Then it was time for the cake base. The flour and sugar were creamed, the eggs added and the almond meal, vanilla and flour beaten through.

The base mix was spread into the prepared pan and it was time to layer up the cake.

First on went dark chocolate....... 

Then the pear mix........ 

Then the flaked almonds...... 

Then it was into the oven. Definitely put this cake onto a tray. It has so much butter in it that it tends to bubble up and out of the tin. The tray stopped our already filthy oven from getting worse.

The cooking time was about 1 hour 20, longer than the recipe indicated but it's a very dense cake. While it appeared cooked when tested I think it could have done with another 5 mins as it dropped slightly in the centre on cooling.

 Here is what the finished product looked like, served with a mixture of marscapone, vanilla and double cream. It was definitely delicious, if not the prettiest cake in the world!