A fruit bowl of ripening pears and some leftover dark chocolate lead to this DELICIOUS cake. Albeit pretty much all cakes are delicious but the combination of pear, dark chocolate and cinnamon turn a typical ‘boring’ naked cake into something spectacular. This cake was a crowd favourite, my colleagues are even requesting it become a regular fixture.

Ingredients

• 1 cups flour, sifted
• 1/2 cup cocoa, sifted
• 1 tsp baking soda, sifted
• 1 tsp baking powder, sifted
• 1 tsp cinnamon, sifted
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 150g Whittakers 50% dark chocolate, roughly chopped (reserve some pieces for the top)
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 100g melted butter
• 1 Tbsp milk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 very ripe pear, mashed
• 2 ripe pears, 1.5 pear cut into 2cm cubes and last half cut into slices for the top

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and line a 23cm cake tin.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and dark chocolate.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, eggs, butter, mashed pear, milk, and vanilla extract. Beat until combined.

Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Add in the diced pear.

Pour the batter into the prepared springform tin. Press in the remaining pieces of dark chocolate and slices of pear. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in tin.

Serve with a dusting of sifted icing sugar and some sprigs of rosemary.

Happy baking! x