An entire tea party could be planned around this gorgeous cake which is gluten free with no added fats. I stumbled upon this recipe as we were out of butter in our home ( shame on me!) but my little laia wanted to bake.

And I am so glad I tried it out with a few modifications. It’s a truly glorious recipe and next time I will cut down the sugar even more as it was a rich sweet for me ( but oh so perfect with a hot, hot cup of chai!).

I halved the recipe and below are the measurements I used to make a 8x 2.5 inch cake.

Ingredients:

2 ripe pears (such as bosc pears)
3/4 cup of granulated sugar + 2 tablespoons
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 and 1/8 cups finely ground blanched almond meal
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons brown sugar or honey
½ cup sliced almonds

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350. Prepare a 8 x 3 inch springform pan by lining with butter and parchment paper.

Peel and core both the pears, slicing one into thin slices as this will go on top of the cake, and chopping the other pear. On the stovestop, cook the chopped pear with lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of sugar until it is soft and mushy which may take 7-10 minutes. Coarsely mash it with a fork and put it aside to cool. Once cool, add the eggs and 1 tsp of vanilla extract and beat together.

Add the almond flour and sugar to a food processor and give it a few long pulses( 4 years olds love to help with this). Add the egg and pear mixture to the food processor and pulse again till well combined.

Heat sugar or honey in a saucepan till slightly bubbly and carefully fold in the thinly sliced pears.

Pour the batter in the prepared pan, decorate the top of the cake with the sliced pears and top with sliced almonds (or coarsely chopped). Bake for 30-40 minutes till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Wait for all who taste to applaud!