Whisk all the dry ingredients for the cake in a large bowl to mix well. Put all the wet ingredients , except the eggs and the sliced pears, into another bowl and whisk together till Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredient mix. Add the beaten eggs and using an electric mixer, beat the batter for 2 minutes.

As Katrina says, u201cGluten-free vegan batters do not behave like wheat batters. They are often stiffer at first, then they get rather sticky and stretchy as the xanthan gum and egg replacer do their vegan g-free thing.u201d

I used eggs but the batter was still pretty stretchy and sticky and kept climbing up my beater attachments. Katrina advises moving oneu2019s hand held mixer to a slower speed, slightly lifting the beaters to encourage the batter to move down into the bowl, and then moving the mixer around the bowl in figure eights at a slight angle.

Scrape the batter out into a lightly greased and dusted 9u201d pan (dust with sorghum flour). Spread it evenly and arrange the pear slices on top, in a pattern.

Rub together the ingredients for the crumb topping and sprinkle it over the peach slices. Bake the cake at 180C (350F) for about 30 to 40 minutes until the cake is firm and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Cool the cake slightly on a rack. Serve warm as it is with coffee or tea, or as a light dessert with vanilla or butterscotch ice-cream.