Upside-down Pear (or plum) Cake

Ingredients & Method:

Oven: 190 C

Greased circle of baking parchment for base of dish

3 large pears - peeled quartered, then halved again (lengthways) - you could use drained, tinned pears

butter for base of dish, demerara sugar and cinnamon to sprinkle over base

small amount of grated choc.

Cake Mixture:

4.1/2 ozs. butter

5 ozs. caster or demerara sugar

2 eggs - beaten

4 ozs. Self-Raising Flour

1 tsp good vanilla essence

grated rind of 1 lemon and half its juice

1. Butter the sides, and place your greased paper disc on the base of your dish

2. Sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon over and place the pears on top

3. for the cake batter: Beat the sugar and butter together

4. Add the vanilla and eggs, a little at a time with some of the flour - beat gently

5. Add the lemon and juice

6. Pour over the pears and smooth out with a knife, if necessary

7. Bake for approx. 1/2 hr but check with a skewer to see if the centre is cooked through.  If you touch it gently, you can usually tell whether it's cooked.

Let the cake cool in its dish, then gently turn upside down and it should drop out by itself.

Peel off the paper and grate some chocolate over the pears.

Delicious served hot or cold with cream.

 This cake is very nice on its own too, or with plums - halved and also put on the base.