Rustic Pear-Almond Tea Cake

ACTIVE TIME: 30 min. TOTAL TIME: 2 hrs. SERVES: 12

1 cup flour

1⁄2 cup ground yellow cornmeal 11⁄2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup granulated sugar

11⁄2 sticks unsalted butter,

at room temp.

1⁄3 cup almond paste,

at room temp.

3 eggs

1⁄2 tsp. almond extract

3⁄4 cup + 1 tsp. milk, divided

2 ripe pears, divided

1 lemon, juiced

1⁄4 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 Heat oven to 325°F. In bowl, mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder and a pinch of salt. With mixer on medium-high speed, beat sugar, butter and almond paste until very smooth, about 3 min. Add eggs one at a time, then add almond extract. Alternately beat in flour mixture and

3⁄4 cup milk. Pour batter into greased and lined 9" springform pan.

2 Bake cake 50 min. Meanwhile, peel and core 1 pear; cut into thin slices and toss with 1 tsp. lemon juice. Remove cake from oven and arrange pear slices in a concentric circle around top of cake. Bake 15 min. more. Let cool on rack.

3 Run knife along perimeter of cake to loosen. Remove from pan and transfer to cake platter. Core and slice remaining pear; toss with 1 tsp. lemon juice. Arrange on cake as desired. In bowl, whisk confectioners’ sugar and remaining milk; drizzle over cake before serving.