Preheat the oven to 200c / Gas 6. Line a 9 inch circular baking tin with a paper base of non-stick baking parchment, grease the sides of the tin either with butter or a baking spray.

In a large mixing bowl beat the softened butter and sugar together until they are fluffy.

Beat in the eggs lightly then sieve over the flour and almonds and fold in until just combined.

Peel, core and chop the pears into 2cm chunks. Fold the fruit into the cake batter along with the vanilla extract. Set aside.

In the oven, toast the pine nuts for 5-10 minutes so they turn golden brown. Keep an eye on them as they will suddenly brown too much if you leave too long. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile you can make the salt caramel syrup in a small saucepan. Over a moderate heat melt the sugar and salt into the water and bring up to the boil for a minute or so allowing it to thicken. You can cool the syrup quickly by plunging the base of the saucepan into a large bowl of ice cold water (this works best with aluminium saucepans). The syrup is thick enough when the wooden spoon leaves an empty trail on the pan surface - add more sugar if still runny.

When the syrup has cooled slightly, drizzle half of it over the surface of the cake and scatter over half of the pine nuts. Using a cocktail stick, lightly swirl the caramel and pine nuts into the surface of the cake batter. Stir the remaining pine nuts into the remaining caramel syrup in the pan and set aside.

Bake the cake until golden brown and a knife or cocktail stick comes out cleanly - around 30 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. To serve, sprinkle over icing sugar and scatter over the remaining caramel covered pine nuts.