Upside-down pear and macadamia cake

This one's a winner.

Every time I've made this upside-down pear and macadamia cake, everybody wants seconds. The cinnamon-spiced pears are a perfect match for the chill that is winter, and the inclusion of almond meal gives the cake a lovely moist friand-style crumb.

What I love most about this cake, is it can be made in advance and then reheated to serve. Once up-turned on a plate, I like to place it under the grill for about ten minutes, or as long as you can before the macadamias threaten to burn. The brown sugar top will bubble and then slowly caramelise to shards of crunchy golden toffee. And that's the moment you will have your guests on-side forevermore.




Upside-down pear and macadamia cake

110g brown sugar
4-6 unripe pears (I used Packham)
250 unsalted butter, softened
100g macadamia halves
300g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 2/3 cups (250g) plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
80g almond meal
500g Greek-style yoghurt (or use 1 cup/250ml buttermilk)


Preheat oven to 180C (170C if fan-forced).

Grease and line the base and sides of a 24cm round cake pan.

Sprinkle the brown sugar over the base of the pan and pat out until it is roughly even. Peel and core the pears, then slice into eighths.

Melt 100g of the butter and pour over the brown sugar. Dot liberally with the macadamia pieces (rounded side on the bottom, flattened side facing you) and then cover the base completely with overlapping side-ways wedges of pear. The pear slices can also be arranged rounded-side down if you find overlapping them too finicky.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the caster sugar and the remaining 150g of butter, and cream for about five minute or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Sift into the bowl the four, baking powder and spices. Add the almond meal and the yoghurt and fold everything together gently with a wooden spoon. The batter should be well-incorporated and smooth. Pour the batter over the pears.

Bake for about 60-80 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool for at least thirty minutes before inverting onto a plate, removing the baking paper and serving.

The cake tastes even better if you invert onto a plate and place beneath a medium-to-high grill, allowing the syrup to caramelise to toffee.

Serve with double cream or scoops of ice cream. The leftovers (if you have any!) will keep for up to a week in the fridge. Microwave leftover slices until hot and serve with cream or ice cream.


Miniature versions (or leftover batter?)

You can also make mini versions of this cake, especially useful if you happen to have leftover batter. Place patty pans into a muffin tin and then use your judgement to line it with brown sugar (about a teaspoon?) and melted butter (about 1 1/2 teaspoons?). Dot with 2-3 pieces of macadamia and layer with halved wedges of pear (you may need to make these a little thinner too).

Cover with batter and bake for about 20-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. You can place these upside down beneath a grill to caramelise as before, or simply microwave in their patty cases and then peel out onto a plate and serve with cream or ice cream. Perfect for an afternoon treat or dessert. Possibly good for breakfast too.



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