Chocolate Pear Cake

Instructions

Cake

Carefully slit the vanilla pod open down its length, and scrape out the small, sticky seeds using the tip of a small, sharp knife and add to a pan a long with the water and 400g of sugar and simmer.

Peel the pears and add to the pan until the pears begin to soften (this will take around 40 to 50 minutes). Carefully remove the pears from the syrup, drain and leave to cool.

Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, combine the flour, cacao powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda and 200g of sugar.

In a separate bowl, thoroughly whisk the buttermilk, egg and oil together. Slowly pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 170C, line a loaf tin with baking paper, pour the mixture in to the tin and place the pears in to the mixture (see picture). Place in the oven for 60 minutes or until baked through. Leave the cake to cool for 20 minutes before attempting to remove from the tin.

Chocolate Syrup

Whisk the cacao powder and sugar together, tip in the water and 1/4 teaspoon of salt and mix over a medium heat. Make sure you're mixing the syrup constantly.

Once the mixture thickens slightly, taste and add extra salt if desired. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract then leave to cool. Drizzle on top of the pear cake to serve.