White Chocolate, Pear & Almond Cake

I had an extra pear and was flipping through a chocolate cookbook that I have and came across this recipe. Since I had all of my baking supplies out baking Christmas Cookies, I decided to try this cake to add to my Christmas baking. I get so used to looking up recipes online that sometimes I forget that I have several baking books to look through! This cake is really good, very tasty. :) I did alter the recipe a little since I didn't have ground almonds. I used 0.5 tsp of almond extract in place of 0.5 tsp of the 2tsp of vanilla that the recipe calls for. It does give it a strong almond taste, so if that's not what you're looking for either omit the almond extract all together or scale it down to 0.25 tsp. This was also really easy to make.

Adapted from: Chocolate Galore by Caroline Beaty

INGREDIENTS
1 ripe pear
1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) sweet butter, slightly softened
3/4 cup superfine sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used 1.5 tsp & 0.5 tsp almond extract)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
5 1/2 oz white chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup blached almonds, roughly chopped (I omitted)
Confectioner's sugar, for dusting

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and baseline a 8 inch cake pan. Peel and core the pear and cut it into eights. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. Fold in the flour and baking powder, and finally the white chocolate and almonds. Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared plan and level the surface. Place the pears in a circle on top, pressing them down into the batter. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until risen and firm in the center. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing and cooling on wire rack. Dust with confectioner's sugar to serve.