Chocolate Pear Cake with Poached Pears
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 cup [130 g] all-purpose flour
- ½ cup [40 g] cocoa powder
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- ¾ cup [150 g] brown sugar
- ¼ cup [55 g] unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pan
- ¼ cup [55 g] canola oil
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tsp salt
- ⅔ cup [160 g] buttermilk, at room temperature
- ⅔ cup [85 g] finely chopped walnuts, plus more for sprinkling
- 3 whole poached pears
For the icing:
- 2 to 3 Tbsp mulled wine pear syrup (from these poached pears)
- 1 cup [120 g] powdered sugar
Instructions
- To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350°F [180°C]. Butter a 9 by 5 in [23 by 13 cm] or 8 by 4 in [20 cm by 10 cm] loaf pan and line with a parchment sling.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk (or sift) together the flour, cocoa powder, cinnamon, baking powder, and cardamom until lump-free. Set aside.
- Place the brown sugar, melted butter, oil, eggs, and salt in another medium mixing bowl. Whisk together until combined. Add the buttermilk and whisk together until completely smooth.
- Sprinkle the walnuts over the dry ingredients, then pour on the wet ingredients and stir together just until there are no lumps (do not overmix). Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth out the top. Submerge the pears in the batter, standing upright, evenly distributing them. To keep them from falling over, optionally place metal skewers through them horizontally so that the skewers rest on the pan.
- Bake for about 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in a gap between 2 pears comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool at room temperature.
- To make the icing, while the cake cools, in a small mixing bowl, whisk together the syrup and powdered sugar. Drizzle the glaze onto the cooled cake and sprinkle with more walnuts.
Notes
Note on the pan size: This recipe has never overflowed during testing and it should not overflow on you if you use a standard 9×5 or 8×4 inch pan. But if yours does overflow, something has gone wrong with your ingredient ratios, oven temperature, or pan depth. If you’re making this for the first time and worried it might overflow, you can place a baking sheet on the rack one level down from the rack you’re baking on.