Almond & Pear Cake | The Landlady

“‘Good gracious me,’ he said. ‘How absolutely fascinating.’ He turned away from the dog and stared with deep admiration at the little woman beside him on the sofa. ‘It must be the most awfully difficult to do a thing like that.’

‘Not in the least,’ she said. ‘I stuff all my little pets myself when they pass away. All you have another cup of tea?’

‘No, thank you,’ Billy said. The tea tasted faintly of bitter almonds, and he didn’t much care for it.”
The Landlady
Roald Dahl

The days are slowly warming, the scent of Australian pollen is beginning to fill the parks of Melbourne and the urge to run away to the countryside is coming in full. I would argue that there is no better place to experience Spring within Australia than Victoria - the brisk edge of chillness still lingers throughout but the days seem to stretch longer.

I took a trip to Daylesford to celebrate the warming weather, spending a weekend tucked away in a tiny studio airbnb, following random bush walks that seemed to stretch for hours, and lounging the afternoons away in a hot chocolate apothecary with numerous books. The town was delightfully quaint and brought about a few moments of reminiscing about my own childhood in a similar setting.

As most children, I adored Roald Dahl - I’ve gone on about my love for Matilda before (and assumption that I should probably have developed telekinetic powers since I also read a lot as a child). But, his short stories are oddly what remains firmly etched within my brain. I think I likely picked up a copy of his short stories from my parents bookshelf when I was around 14, expecting something similar to the children’s tales that I had devoured before, and was shocked to encounter stories of murder, horror and general…weirdness.

Picking up a book that contained the completed short stories of Roald Dahl was something special, and a recent reread has left me remembering the delights of his writing. Despite reading it previously, it seems that every short story’s end comes as a complete surprise, much like when I first read them.

While I promise this cake contains no secret ingredients that a particular character from one of his short stories is fond of - it is instead delicious. Moist, crumbly and perfect with a cup of tea and a good book on a spring afternoon.

Almond and Pear Cake
Makes one 8” cake
Ingredients
100g plain flour
125g butter
125g caster sugar
90ml milk
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
100g almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bi-carb
3 pears, peeled, cored and cut in half and thinly sliced
50g flaked almonds
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Grease an 8” cake tin, lining the bottom with a circle of baking paper.

2. Combine the apple cider vinegar and milk - leave to sit for five minutes, or until it begins to curdle.

3. Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer, and cream together until pale and fluffy. Slowly add in the prepared milk mixture while beating.

4. Remove the sugar mix from the mixer and fold in the flour, bi-carb, baking powder, almond meal and cinnamon. Mix until combined.

5. Pour the cake mixture into your prepared tin and arrange the slices of pear on top neatly (or messily - it’s your cake).

6. Place into the oven and bake for 25 minutes before removing it to scatter the flaked almonds over the top. Return the cake to the oven and cook for another 10 - 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Though do be careful not to poke the skewer into one of the pear slices.

7. Leave to cool for at least 30 minutes before removing from tin. It is particularly good with a cup of tea and some coconut yoghurt. Enjoy!