THB #4 Pear Almond Cake

Baked this cake this afternoon, and really, it's a great dessert if only I changed the suggested almond extract to vanilla instead
I poured almond extract to the batter when I realized that I and also the whole family do not fancy the fragrance of almond extract, even though we love almond
But aside from that, I love this short and moist cake
I love the use of cinnamon and nutmeg on the pears, they gave great additional aroma

The 4th cake from the book Coffee Cakes by Lou Seibert Pappas, for The Home Bakers event :)

The original recipe is to arrange the pears in pinwheel shape but since I chose to use rectangle pan, I didn't do so, hence the title of this posting - pear almond cake
Instead of hazelnut, I used ground almond which toasted in the oven during preheating for less than 5 minutes
The pan I used is 20x10x4 cm, the cake was around 2 cm height
For the pear, I couldn't find anjou nor bosc pear, so in the end I used Taylor Gold pears from New Zealand
This pear is so sweet and juicy, but it's soft, not crunchy
I also reduced the light brown sugar to 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup

This cake is not for my kids, they didn't even want to give it a try, but their mummy and daddy love it, but definitely if I bake this cake again, I will use vanilla extract :)

Please visit The Home Bakers, you'll see other members' bakes and really hope you can join in the fun too!
Recipe can be found in Zoe's site