Chocolate Pear Cake with Vanilla
Rich chocolate cake layered with fresh sliced pears and infused with vanilla bean. Butter and chocolate are melted together, then combined with whipped eggs and sugar before folding in flour and milk. The batter is poured over arranged pears and baked until set. A classic French dessert with natural fruit sweetness balancing the cocoa depth.
Ingredients
- 13 tbsp butter, softened
- 4 pears, peeled and sliced
- 7 oz dark chocolate, chopped
- 1 vanilla bean, seeds extracted
- 3 tablespoon milk
- 2 cups flour
- ½ package baking powder
- 1 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
Instructions
- 1
Preheat oven to 180 C.
- 2
Butter a cake pan and dust with sugar.
- 3
Peel pears, slice them, and arrange in the pan.
- 4
Combine chocolate and butter in a bowl.
- 5
Melt the chocolate mixture using a double boiler or microwave.
- 6
Whisk eggs with vanilla bean seeds and sugar until pale.
- 7
Sift flour with baking powder and fold into egg mixture.
- 8
Stir in milk until combined.
- 9
Fold melted chocolate mixture into batter.
- 10
Pour batter over pears.
- 11
Bake for 35 minutes.
- 12
Cool in pan before unmolding and serving.
Tips
Use room-temperature eggs for best volume when whipping.
Sift flour with baking powder to avoid lumps in the batter.
Cool cake completely before unmolding to prevent breaking.
Good to Know
Cover and refrigerate up to 2 days.
Assemble and bake up to 1 day ahead.
Serve at room temperature or lightly chilled.
Common Mistakes
Skip sifting flour to avoid dense crumb structure.
Overmix batter after adding chocolate to prevent tough cake.
Add cold eggs to whipped mixture to prevent deflation.