Pear and Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

(Serves 8)

• 50g granulated sugar
• 2 pears, peeled, cored and cut into lengths
• 150g dark chocolate
• 90g unsalted butter, cubed
• 90g caster sugar
• 90g ground almonds
• 3 eggs, separated
• 1 tsp cocoa powder for dusting
• Icing sugar for dusting

Method

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• To poach the pears, combine the sugar with 500ml of water and place on the hob on a medium heat, adding in the pears. Poach for 15 minutes, drain and leave to the side.
• To melt the chocolate, place in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of water. Once melted, add in the butter and remove from the heat. Stir well and leave to cool (but not set). Next, mix in the caster sugar and ground almonds.
• Grease a cake tin and dust with the cocoa powder.
• Whisk the egg whites into soft peaks and fold in the cake mix. Place in the cake tin, arranging the pear pieces from the centre out.
• Bake for 40 minutes, check by placing a skewer in the middle which will come out clean when baked through.
• Leave to cool, then remove from the tin and dust with icing sugar and serve.