Pear and Apple Upside Down Cake

These quantities make a very large cake - we used a 10" deep round tin. Great for keeping in the fridge and having as a pudding with custard or soya cream.

Ingredients.

a large tin of pear halves in syrup (around 800g including syrup)

500g/16oz/2 and a half cups of self raising flour

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

200g/7oz/1 cup of sugar

1 cup/8 fl.oz/200ml of sunflower oil

2 and a half cups/20 fl.oz/500ml of apple juice

1 teaspoon of natural vanilla extract

a tablespoon of brown sugar for sprinkling

Oil your cake tin and preheat oven to 180C/360F. Arrange the pears, cut side down on the base of tin (in a star pattern was very pretty). Combine the dry ingredients (excluding the brown sugar) in a bowl then add the wet ingredients (including the syrup from the pears) and mix well. Pour over the pears and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes or until nearly cooked through. Remove from tin by placing an oven-proof plate over the tin and turning upside down so you have the pears on top. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.