For the pear and chocolate lovers a little easter treat – Pear and Almond Chocolate Cake. With a light texture, not overly sweet and a distinctive chocolate taste it’s a pure indulgence served warm with a big dollop of double cream or vanilla ice-cream.
I would highly recommend using only ripe pears or poaching the greener pears for a little while before baking or you are likely to end up with undercooked pears and clashing textures of soft and luscious cake and harder pears. So if you bought green pears, simply leave them on the kitchen counter for a few days until they ripen and before using them.
Using good quality chocolate is essential as it is going to directly affect the taste of the cake. Try using chocolate that has at least 55% cocoa for a more distinctive and richer chocolate taste.
I coated the pears in demerara sugar for their big granules and effective look, but using white or brown sugar is perfectly fine.
Sprinkle the cake with few pinches of sugar just before serving it.
Ingredients
3 ripe pears
120g unsalted butter cubed
150g good quality dark chocolate
4 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup plain all purpose flour
2 cups almond meal
2 tbsp dutch cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup demerara sugar
Double or thick cream, or vanilla ice-cream to serve
Method
Preheat oven to 175C.
Grease and line a 22cm round cake pan.
Peel, halve and core the pears.
Cube the butter and break the chocolate into small pieces, then place them into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 1 min or till the chocolate has melted, stirring every 30 seconds to prevent burning the chocolate.
In a bowl of an electric mixer beat the eggs and sugar till thickened and has reached a creamy consistency 5-8 minutes on high.
Sieve in the flour and baking powder into the eggs and sugar, using a spatula gently fold in.
Add the almond meal and cocoa in 2-3 batches folding in gently.
Pour cooled chocolate and butter mixture along with vanilla essence and gently fold in.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin.
Coat the pear halves in demerara sugar and arrange them on top of the batter.
Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes. Remove from oven and cool in a pan. Serve warm with a good dollop of double cream.
