Godsent sticky toffee upside-down pear cake

 Who said puddings should not be too sweet?

We dont need the maestro Eddie Izzard to tell us that pears are bastards!!!! " Pears can just fuck off too. 'Cause they're gorgeous little beasts, but they're ripe for half an hour, and you're never there. They're like a rock or they're mush". In the supermarket, people banging in nails. "I'll just put these shelves up, mate, then you can have the pear." … So you think, "I'll take them home and they'll ripen up." But you put them in the bowl at home, and they sit there, going, "No! No! Don't ripen yet, don't ripen yet. Wait til he goes out the room! Ripen! Now now now!"
Well I have had a bag of baby Rocha pears sitting at the back of my kitchen for over a week now.I have tried every trick in the book to ripen the bastards, but will they ripen? heck no."Add ripe bananas or apples to a brown paper bag to ripen pears in 1-3 days",the not so handy hint on google told me To produce ripe pears in just 1-3 days, place a banana or apple in the paper bag with your pears. The ripe fruits give off ethylene gas, which causes the pears to ripen very quickly.Ethylene gas,my giddy arse, its a myth.There they still are, hard as rocks.On Saturday I had to resort to poaching them before i included them in the cake I was making.Today this recipe popped up and who can honestly say they would not die for a killer sticky toffee pudding.For me it is up there with some of those ultimate Christmas recipes, like brandy soaked Christmas cup cakes.This sticky toffee cake recipe is like the classic pudding but in cake form.Whats more it includes pears.The recipe assured me........
"It works well with any pear no matter how hard or ripe and bruised it is: all will melt into the sticky cake dough, and will become a delicious companion to the rich and sticky, date-flavoured cake".What a godsend.

Sticky toffee upside-down pear cake
Serves 6 
200g dates, roughly chopped
350ml oat drink or milk
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100ml olive oil
150g unrefined sugar
220g wholemeal flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch nutmeg
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp cinnamon
1-3 pears, cut in half and cored

Heat the oven to 200C (190C fan)/410F/gas 6½. Put the dates in a saucepan with the oat drink or milk, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes. 
Off the heat, add the bicarbonate of soda and stir for 30 seconds, or until the dates begin to dissolve. Leave to cool, then mix in the olive oil, 50g of the sugar, the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon.
Grease and line a medium-sized cake tin. Sprinkle the rest of the sugar over the base of the tin. If you have only one pear, slice it and lay it out over the base of the tin; if you have two pears, cut them into large chunks; and if you have three or more pears, put the halves cut-side down in the tin.
Cover with the cake mixture and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until just cooked and springy to the touch. Turn out and serve warm.