Pear Crumble Cake

I thought spring was on its way... and all of a sudden, it snowed again yesterday. I just glimpsed out of the window and it's white outside... and it's cold. That means winter coat all over again... Well, the snowing might explain the headache I've been having since the beginning of the week. Thank God I had enough cake leftovers from the weekend! Next to my cupcakes, I also baked this cake. It has a wonderful crust, is topped with crumble and slivered almonds and it has a soft filling of pears with vanilla... perfection... That one definitely goes on the list of cakes that I'll be baking again!

Recipe
(from LE MENU 1/2 2013)

for the dough/crumble:
300g flour
a pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
180g sugar
180g butter, cold, cut into pieces
1 egg, beaten
2-3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons sugar
30g butter, cold, cut into pieces

for the filling:
about 800g pears, peeled, cores removed, cut in thin slices
2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped out
2-3 tablespoons almond slivers
icing sugar for decorating

For the dough, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Add the 180g butter and rub into the batter with your fingers until you got a crumbly mixture. Take away 1/4 and put into another bowl, set aside. Add egg and milk to the remaining 3/4s of the mixture and form a smooth dough, don't knead. Add the remaining sugar and butter to the other 1/4 and rub with your finger until you got crumble. Put the crumble into the refrigerator.

Press the dough into you prepare baking tin, either a square tin of about 23x18 or a 22cm diameter springform pan. Also form a rim of about 4cm with the dough. Perforate the dough with a fork. Put it into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

In a bowl, mix pears, melted butter, sugar and vanilla seeds. Fill into your prepared cake tin. Spread the crumble over that and top with some almonds slivers. Bake for about 50-60 minutes. Eat warm or cold. Dust with icing sugar before serving.