Kick the tires and light the fires to 375 degrees.
Combine all of the filling ingredients, except pears, in a large skillet on the stove.
Then stir in the sliced and cubed pears. I found that the cubed pears were the best, since pears are so soft to begin with you can do delightful sized cubes; be bold and experiment.
Cook the pear mixture over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until hot and bubbly, stirring gently. The mixture will thicken up during this process, which is just fine.
Pour the filling into the 8 inch X 8 inch pan and set aside while you make the topping.
For the topping, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, salt and baking soda in a mixing bowl.
To make the topping a scone instead of a cake you need to cut in the butter, until it's little pebbles all throughout the dry mixture. Then add the cream and mix until blended together. It will resemble a biscuit dough very much at this point, more than a scone dough. This is how you achieve a biscuit topping, always cut the cold butter into the dry mixture, then add the liquid ingredients until just mixed.
Top the fruit filling evenly with large spoonfuls of topping, I dabbed bit by bit across the top until it was covered. It does take some patience because the topping doesn't pour or spread like batter. I would put a dab on top, smooth it out as wide as possible, repeating until the top was covered.
Sprinkle the topping with 1 tablespoon of sugar, if desired..
Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes, or until pears are tender and bubbly and topping is golden brown.