Ingredients
6 cups water
250g caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, spilt
1kg just-ripe pears, peeled and halved
200g softened butter
175g sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 3/4 cups self-raising flour
160ml full-cream milk
Put water, sugar and vanilla bean in a wide saucepan or frying pan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Stir until sugar dissolves, then add pears and simmer for 10-15 minutes, until pears are cooked but still holding their shape. Remove from poaching liquid and leave to drain. You need them to be as dry as possible. Remove vanilla bean from liquid, scrape out any remaining seeds and set aside.
Preheat oven to 175C. Lightly grease a 28-cm round springform cake tin and line with non-stick baking paper.
When pears have cooled, finely chop two of the halves. Arrange the other halve carefully over the base of the cake tin, then top with the finely chopped pear to fill in the gaps.
Beat butter with sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs gradually, continuing to beat. Add sifted flour and milk alternately, add a little at a time. Finally, stir through the vanilla seeds. Spoon batter carefully over pears and smooth the top.
Place in preheated oven and bake for 50-60 minutes, until cake feels form to the touch and starts to pull away from the sides of the tin. Remove from own and leave to cool for a few minutes. Release sides of cake tin and invert cake onto a cooling rack.
Serve warm or at room temperature.
Recipe from Australian Family Table Cookbook.
