This Chocolate Pear Cake has a brownie consistency, is studded with pear and dusted with confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder. Simple and elegant.
A small 6-inch cake that easily cuts for your afternoon tea or coffee. Add some whipped cream on top or serve heavy cream when served in the afternoon.
Instead of decorating the top of the cake with slices of pear, this recipe has the pear inside the batter, cut in small 1/4-1/2 cubes. This will allow you to do with the cake what you see fit. Add an icing, whipped cream or keep it simple as I did.
The consistency of this Chocolate Pear Cake is rather dense, like fudgy brownie. Almost the opposite of this Chocolate Angel Food Cake. The batter is made from butter, eggs, chocolate and little flour. The leavening is coming from the egg whites. Make sure you don’t keep it longer in the oven than necessary, as you don’t want it to dry out.
I used an Anjou pear, because it is still firm when ripe and I wanted to keep the pear cubes in tact, rather than being cooked to mush.
How to Make Chocolate Pear Cake
- Melt the chocolate + espresso coffee powder (brings out the chocolate flavor)
- Whip the egg whites stiff
- Cream the butter, add sugar, egg yolks, cinnamon and salt
- Fold in flour and egg whites
- Add pear pieces
- Bake until dry in the middle (toothpick test)
- Decorate
Enjoy this cake and let me know what you think. I love to hear from you.
Chocolate Pear Cake
Ingredients
- 2.6 ounces dark chocolate
- 1/4 teaspoon espresso coffee powder
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 8 ounces pear ripe and firm
Decoration
- confectioner’s sugar
- cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Separate the eggs (1 egg white will not be used). Peel and cut the pear in 1/4-1/2 inch cubes. Butter 6-inch pie pan and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Shake excess crumbs out of cake pan.
- Chop the chocolate in small pieces and melt in together with the espresso coffee powder au-bain-marie or in the microwave. Cool just a little.
- Beat the butter with a mixer until soft and add the confectioner’s sugar, little by little. Then add the 3 egg yolks, cinnamon, salt and melted chocolate.
- Whisk 2 egg whites stiff.
- Fold egg whites and flour alternately into the butter-chocolate mixture. Don’t overdo it, but make sure your end-result is well-mixed.
- Mix in the pear pieces.
- Transfer batter into the cake pan and level as much as you can.
- Bake cake approx. 50 minutes. Test with a toothpick; the inside of the cake should be dry.
- Remove from oven, take out of cake pan and cool complete on wire rack.
- Dust with confectioner’s sugar and then with cocoa powder.
Notes
- Butter and eggs need to be at room temperature.
- 2.6 oz. chocolate is 2 bars (most brands). I used 70% dark chocolate
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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