Spiced poached pear cake with toffee sauce

PREP + COOK TIME 1 HOUR 40 MINS (+ COOLING) SERVES 12

¾ cup (110g) self-raising flour

1 cup (100g) hazelnut meal

(ground hazelnuts)

1 cup (220g) firmly packed

brown sugar

150g butter, melted

6 egg whites

POACHED PEARS

9 small pears (see tip)

1 vanilla bean

2 cinnamon sticks,

broken in half

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

2 cups (440g) firmly packed

brown sugar

1.5 litres (6 cups) water

TOFFEE SAUCE

½ cup (110g) caster sugar

1½ tbsp water

½ cup (125ml) thickened

cream, at room temperature

2 tsp brandy

Pinch sea salt flakes

1 To make poached pears, peel pears, leaving stalks intact. Remove cores from the base. Halve vanilla bean lengthways and scrape seeds into a large saucepan. Add the cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar and water, then stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and add pears. Reduce heat to low, then simmer, partially covered, turning pears occasionally, for 30 minutes or until pears are just tender. Using a slotted spoon, remove pears from syrup. Cool. When cool enough to handle, trim 1cm from base of each pear to stand upright.

2 Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 25cm springform pan. Line base and side with baking paper.

3 Sift the flour and hazelnut meal into a large bowl. Stir in the sugar. Whisk in butter, then the egg whites until combined. Pour mixture into pan. Place poached pears in mixture, standing upright.

4 Bake cake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave cake in pan for 5 minutes before transferring, top-side up, to a wire rack to cool.

5 To make the toffee sauce, stir the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and boil, without stirring, for 2 minutes, swirling pan occasionally to colour evenly, or until the mixture is dark golden and reaches 180°C on a sugar thermometer. Remove from heat. Gradually whisk in the cream until smooth. Stir in the brandy and salt.

6 Serve cake drizzled with toffee sauce.