Ingredients

• 150 g butter
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or 1 1/2 cups gluten-free flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder (gluten-free if needed)
• 1/2 cup almond meal (almond flour)
• 3 pears, peel quartered and finely sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds

Instructions

1. Grease a 30cm flan tin or a pie plate that you can directly slice and serve from. Preheat oven to 18OC.

2. Using electric beaters, beat butter, sugar and lemon zest until creamy and pale in colour.

3. Continu beating and add the eggs, one at a time.

4. Fold in the flour, baking powder and almond meal. Fold in the xanthan or guar gum at this point if you are using gluten-free flour that does not already contain a gum.

5. Spoon half of this mixture into the flan tin. Spread to cover. Reserve the remaining half of the mixture. Arrange the pear slices over the base. Spread the pears out evenly. They usually need to be slightly overlapped. Sprinkle the cinnamon over the pears.

6. Spread the remaining cake batter over the top of the pear layer and then scatter over the flaked almonds.

7. Bake in the pre-heated oven for around 30 minutes or until tested as cooked with a skewer.

8. Allow the cooked cake to stand for at least 10 minutes prior to serving. Serve warm with fresh cream, warm custard or ice-cream.