Whole Spiced Pear & Chocolate Loaf Cake
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 2 hours
For pears
- 4-5 pears (I used beurre bosc pears) depending on how many can fit your loaf tin
- 4 cups water
- 1.5 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 cardamom pods, crushed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For cake
- 400g/14ozs. dark chocolate
- 150g/5ozs. butter
- 6 eggs
- 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 1/4 cup almond meal
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Pinch of fine salt
Step 1 - First make the pears-you can make these a day or two ahead of time. Peel the pears and keep them whole. I don't bother with lemon juice, I just submerge them straight into the water once I've peeled them with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and vanilla. Bring to a boil and simmer until soft-these pears only took 20 minutes. Stick a fork or knife into the bottom of them to see how they are going.
Step 2 - Remove the pears and you can make the simmering liquid into a delicious cordial (bring it to a boil and reduce it by 50% and serve it with soda water). You can use the pears on the same day or you can place them in the fridge. I just bring them to room temperature before starting the cake part.
Step 3 - To make the cake, preheat oven to 160C/320F and line a loaf tin with parchment on the base and sides. Melt the chocolate and butter and stir until smooth. Whisk in the eggs and then the sugar, almond meal, milk, vanilla and salt until combined. Pour the batter into the tin and the submerge the pears standing up in the batter. Bake for 1 hour & 20-30 minutes or until the cake is done. Allow to cool completely. Serve with cream.