Method

• 1.
  For the pears, peel, quarter and core the pears. Lie them in a small frypan or saucepan so they fit fairly snugly in a single layer. Add the muscat and lemon juice. Place over medium-high heat until the liquid comes to the boil, then reduce the heat to low so it just simmers. Cover and poach the pears for 10 minutes or until just tender, carefully turning once while they cook. Gently transfer pears to a bowl, then increase the heat and reduce the liquid to about 1/2 cup (125ml). Pour it over the pears and leave to cool.
• 2.
  Preheat the oven to 180°C. Butter a 23-24cm shallow cake pan (a sponge sandwich pan is ideal) and line the base and sides with buttered baking paper. Dust lightly with flour and set aside.

• 3.
  Put the almond meal and flour in a large bowl with 1/4 teaspoon salt and whisk them together with a balloon whisk for 40 seconds. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, caster sugar, vanilla extract and almond essence until they’re thoroughly combined, then mix in the cooled butter until it disappears. Tip the butter mixture into the almond mixture and stir them together. Spread evenly into the prepared pan. Pat the pears dry, then halve the quarters lengthways and lay decoratively on top. Sprinkle a tiny bit of caster sugar over each slice of pear.
• 4.
  Bake the cake for 55 minutes or until the top slowly springs back when gently pressed and a fine skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. (Cover the top loosely with foil after 40 minutes or so to stop it browning too much.)
• 5.
  Transfer the cake to a rack and cool in the pan until barely warm. Carefully invert the cake onto the rack, remove the pan and baking paper, then invert onto a serving plate, pear-side up. Dust lightly with icing sugar and serve with cream.