Martina's Pear & Chocolate Cake

This is the perfect pear & chocolate cake. Super easy to make and more-ish, this cake goes perfectly well with a cup of tea on a rainy afternoon.

Even as a child, I was never a fussy eater. Fish, meat and the majority of vegetables, I always ate without putting up any resistance. But one thing that I never particularly enjoyed was pears. Never craved them, never thought much about them. So when my best friend suggested she made me a pear & chocolate cake, I only said yes not to disappoint her. She had made this cake a few times, and it had always been a hit with everyone, and she was keen to make me try it. Pear & chocolate is a very common pairing in Italy, not so much here in the UK, and literally everyone in my home country seems to love it. So I figured, why not?

When Martina came over and made it, I was her assistant and helped her put it together. It shared the usual steps of many Italian cakes, with the measurement unit being a yogurt pot, whose contents had been poured into the batter (don't worry though, I have converted the quantities of each ingredient into normal measuraments for you!). At its core, it is definitely an easy cake. But it also has fancy elements to it which will wow your guests, like lushious melted dark chocolate and pears cooked in a sweet syrupy wine. It is a thick cake, with a very brownie-like texture. From the first bite, it converted me to pears altogether, which I now buy often in my weekly shop. Granted, tastebuds evolve with time, but this cake is sensational and would probably convert any pear sceptic.

How to Make the Best Pear & Chocolate Cake

• Choose a good-quality dessert wine: The pear chunks are cooked in a sweet dessert wine. I used Passito di Pantelleria, but you can easily use Marsala or even Port. If you don't cook with wine, you'll need to add more sugar and some water to the pears before cooking them, and I would suggest a dash of vanilla extract/essence too.

• Use dark chocolate with a good amount of fat: Using dark chocolate with cocoa solids higher than 70% will not work for you here. Use a cooking dark chocolate instead (I often use Bournville in the UK) so that the chocolate will melt into a shiny, lushious sauce.

• Sieve your cocoa powder: This is a thick cake, meaning we need to help the batter stay as smooth as possible. For this reason, I highly recommend sieving your cocoa powder, as it tends to form clumps (and I have learned this the hard way).

Key Steps to Make this Gorgeous Pear & Chocolate Cake

1. Always preheat your oven.

2. Mix in your dry ingredients separately. Then add the liquid ingredients one at a time.

3. Melt your chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water for the best consistency. When the chocolate is almost all melted, remove the saucepan from the heat and keep stirring the chocolate until fully melted - this will prevent your chocolate from burning rather quickly.

4. Cut your pears into small chunks and cook them on a medium heat, stirring constantly (the pan has sugar and alcohol in it, which is a recipe for disaster if left unattended).

5. Not sure you are a fan of the thick consistency? No problem, simply add more wet ingredients: add one egg and another 80 ml of milk to the recipe. That'll do it.

6. After the cake has come out of the oven, let it cool down completey and then let it snow with a generous sprinkle of icing sugar. It truly is the best.

Ingredients:

3 medium eggs*

125 gr caster sugar + 2/3 tbsp for the pears

125 gr unsalted butter

150 gr natural yogurt

300 gr plain flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder

200 gr cooking dark chocolate (eg Bournville)

100 ml milk

180/200 gr pears (about three medium-sized pears)

1 tsp baking powder

4 tbps dessert wine** (eg Passito, Marsala, Port, etc)

Optional icing sugar

* If you are not a fan of the thick consistency, add 1 egg and an extra 80 ml milk to the batter to make it lighter.

** If you don't cook with wine, use 4/5 tbps of water, 1 extra tbps sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract instead (or a vanilla pod!).

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/360F.

2. Add flour, sugar, sieved cocoa powder and baking powder to a large bowl, and mix until fully combined.

3. Break the chocolate into a heat-resistant bowl and place it on top of a saucepan filled with water. Simmer the water on a medium-low heat to melt the chocolate. Once the chocolate is almost fully melted, remove the saucepan from the heat and stir the chocolate until melted.

4. In a small bowl, beat the eggs and then add it to the dry ingredients. Then add the yogurt and milk. Finally, add the melted chocolate, which should have cooled down slightly by now.

5. Cut the pears into small chunks, add them to a pan along with the dessert wine and sugar. Cook on a medium-low heat, constantly stirring for about ten minutes, at which point the pears will have softened and the wine and sugar will have thickened.

6. Line an 8-inch springform cake tin with baking paper (or butter generously). Add just over half of the batter to it and spread with a spoon. Then add the pears on top. Cover with the remaining batter. If you want the pears to be more visible, use about 75% of the batter in the first layer. If you want them fully covered, the split should be closer to 50/50.

7. Bake for about 35 mins. Once out of the oven, let it cool down fully before sprinkling generously with icing sugar.

This cake can be kept at room temperature for up to 4 days.