Pear and almond cake

This is a cake that I've been intending to bake for aaaages. It's actually one of quite a long list of recipes I want to get around to trying but haven't found time actually to bake. Until now! The recipe is taken from here with a few very minor modifications.

Pear and Almond Cake
Ingredients
For the pears

• 2 Large pears
• 25g Butter
• 1tbsp Caster sugar

For the cake

• 150g Butter
• 125g Caster sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1tsp Vanilla extract
• 75g Self-raising flour
• 75g Ground almonds
• 1tsp Ground cinnamon

Method

1. Peel and core the pears, then cut into quarters.
   
2. Heat the butter and sugar together in a large frying pan. When the butter is bubbling and the sugar has dissolved, add the pears and caramelise over a medium heat, turning occasionally.
3. Remove the pears from the pan and allow to cool. (I did this much the previous day and put the pears in tupperware in the fridge overnight).
4. Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy.
5. Beat the eggs and vanilla extract into the mixture.
6. Fold in the flour, ground almonds and cinnamon.
7. Pour the mixture into a lined baking tin. Arrange the pears on top.
8. Bake at 170C/Gas Mark 3 for 40-50 minutes.
9. Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from the tin.

Here are the pear quarters just after being put into the pan (start of step 2).Now partway through and at the end of step 2. Quite a lovely change, isn't it?After staying in the fridge overnight, the pears have survived remarkably well!The batter's a bit thicker than normal cakes (I'm guessing this is because of the ground almonds - they'll release a lot of oil when baked). I'm also unconvinced that the proportions of pear to cake are correct; I'd already reduced the number of pears from 3 to 2. But anyway, here's the cake ready for the oven (end of step 7).And here it is again after baking. I think it looks really rather good!