Pear Pinwheel and Almond Cake

This is my second bake for the event, The Home Bakers organised by Joyce, Kitchen Flavours. My first bake was Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake. We are baking all recipes from one book, "Coffee Cakes" by Lou Seibert Pappas until every recipe has been baked from this book. This book has 60 recipes and we will bake one cake in every 3 weeks. 

I have never had such a combination before: pear and almonds. The original recipe, "Pear Pinwheel and Hazelnut Cake" called for Anjou or Bosc pears and hazelnuts, but it was difficult to find both ingredients, so I used Forelle pears and almonds (pictured). Both ingredients substituted nicely, although I can't vouch for the difference in taste, as I've never tasted the original recipe before. Gathering from fellow Home Bakers' comments, since the cake doesn't rise as much, I used a six-inches pie pan for half the recipe. Three pears is certainly a crowd, as I only used three quarter of a pear and have plenty of slices left. I must say that the Forelle pears are really sweet. 

It is a beautiful cake. Rustic, charming and photogenic. I reduced 25% of the sugar called for in the recipe, and omitted the essence altogether. I never had any essences for baking lying around the kitchen. We just don't fancy those stuffs in our household, so please tell me if I am missing anything for not adding the vanilla or almond essence?

The abundance of almond meal in the cake makes it smell and taste heavenly. It was indeed a dense cake, but it was rather moist when it was warm. A note for storage: this cake is best eaten fresh, the wet pears and almond meal doesn't really keep well. The recipe for this cake can be found via: Pear Pinwheel and Hazelnut Cake from Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids. 

Do check out our fellow THB's rendition of Pear and Pinwheel Hazelnut Cake.

I am also sharing this wonderful cake with Miz Helen's Full Plate Thursday.