Chocolate and Pear Cake Updated Feb 2018. I’m slowly going through all my old recipes remaking and re shooting them. I have to say it’s turning out to be far more fun than I’d expected. Firstly because I love the fact that I can go back and make recipes from my own website, that may seem a bit odd but I always have a little giggle to myself when I log on to make my own recipes, it’s a bit surreal to me even now after nearly 3 years of blogging. Secondly I’m REALLY loving replacing the photo’s and seeing how far I’ve come.
These are my best present day photo’s I got impatient and photo’d them in fading light so they’re not as good as I’d like, but you have to agree, they’re an improvement. Oh and I know what you’re probably thinking, the new one sank…erm well yes, a wee bit but I have an electric oven now and to be fair I’m still learning where that’s concerned!
The best bit about this remake of one of my recipes is that I made it to share with two wonderful friends Emma and Mel who just spent the day with me, you may know them as Free From Farmhouse and Le Coin de Mel. The funny bit…we didn’t get to eat it. We talked and talked and laughed and shared our lives with one another whilst being entertained by two of the most darling little girls who got on so well playing together and my two furry puppy dog girls who quite frankly are spoilt rotten. When it was time to go I offered slices of cake to-go but the offer was turned down because I’d not photographed it yet…that is how you spot a food blogger at 20 paces; putting the blog before an empty tummy!
Original Post 2015: This Chocolate and Pear Cake was made yesterday on a completely impulsive need to have cake and tea, tea and cake … cake! I’m not even a lover of pears but there were 4 of them staring at me in the fruit bowl, on the edge of over ripeness. I knew it was only a matter of time before the fruit flies would come a-knocking so there was only one thing for it, bake them, even better, bake them gluten free, in fact no flour at all.
I’d had this recipe for pear cake in my scrapbook for literally years now and although I didn’t have all the exact ingredients, I thought I’d give it a go (a disadvantage to impulsive baking – lack of specific ingredients, but don’t be shy, give it a try!) This recipe is an adaptation from a recipe I cut out from a Tesco magazine, some times you win, some times you loose; on this occasion I came up with a winner!
Can I make this Chocolate & Pear Cake Dairy Free?
Yes you can, it’s quite simple you just swap out the butter for a dairy free alternative. I’m finding that the new vegan Flora block is proving to be very effective at dairy free baking at the moment and is secretly my favourite dairy alternative to butter (not an ad, just the honest truth). If you wanted to make this egg free too you’re going to struggle as this is a three egg bake, and in my experience you can only really get away with a flax egg alternative for two eggs worth. By all means prove me wrong, here’s my guide to a flax egg if you want to give it a go.
How to make a flax egg
to make 1 flax egg you need the following ingredients:
– 1tbsp ground flax seed
– 3tbsp water
– 1tsp psyllium husk (optional but does add elasticity to baking)
simply add all ingredients to a glass and stir before measuring out the other recipe ingredients, by the time you come to use your ‘egg’ mixture it will have thickened to a frog-spawn consistency (thicker if you added psyllium husk)
Then just add to your baking as you would an egg. For 2 eggs double the ingredients but note that recipes that require more than two eggs may fail due to lack of support in the structure.
If getting creative in the kitchen isn’t your style and you’d rather a trialled and tested version then this is the bake for you Delicious Pear, Chocolate & Almond Torte – gluten free and vegan. As you can see by the photo, my skills just keep improving in that department (thank goodness).
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Gluten Free Chocolate and Pear Cake Recipe
Deliciously moist and torte-like in texture, this pear and chocolate cake is naturally gluten free due to the fact it contains no flour and with a dash of whisky it’s a real treat for the tea table.
- 85 g butter or dairy free alternative
- 85 g caster sugar
- 85 g dark chocolate
- 1 tsp whisky brandy or rum are also delicious
- 3 eggs separated
- 85 g hazelnuts almonds work equally well
- 3 ripe pears peeled, halved and cored
- Toast the nuts under a grill until just brown – keep an eye on them, they burn really quickly
- Blitz the nuts in a food processor until they are finely chopped
- Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over hot water or in microwave
- Add the whisky to the chocolate, leave to cool.
- Whisk the sugar and egg yolks until thick and a pale creamy colour
- Fold the nuts and chocolate mixture into the eggs and sugar.
- Whisk the egg whites into soft peaks, add one wooden spoon of the white to the chocolate mixture and stir.
- Add the remaining egg whites and fold in.
- Add to a loose bottomed cake tin that has been lined and buttered
- Arrange the pears in a circle round-side up.
- Bake at Gas4 / 180C / 350F for 45mins
- Once cooked leave to cool for 5mins before taking out of tin to cool completely.
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Don’t loose it, pin this delicious Chocolate and Pear Cake
And one last thing! I’ve linked my Gluten Free Chocolate and Pear Cake with these other awesome Foodies websites, go check them out
Cook Blog Share | Fiesta Friday | Friday Favourites | Handmade Monday | Sundays on Silverado | Full Plate Thursday | Traffic Jam Weekend Linky | What’s For Dinner?
*disclaimer: I use affiliate codes on my website, the vast majority are to Amazon. If you click on any of the links or images in the post and make a purchase my family will benefit from a small % of that purchase at no extra cost to you, in fact, for full transparency, in 2020 I’ve made my first £25, so it won’t make me a millionaire but it will treat me to a few coffees, Lord knows I need the caffeine!
This is inspiring at least one fellow blogger Rebecca! Food photography is just *one* of many skills I would like to develop. I *believe* I am at the stage of progressing from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence! Looks like you are all the way at conscious competence :-P
If you ever run another one of those blogger workshops consider me within the bulls eye section of your target market!
I am at the stage of acquiring props and playing around with things like a photo box and a tripod and a remote trigger. The photo box is my ‘lighting hack’ as I otherwise have terrible indoor lighting thanks to a combination of privacy film on windows, which dims out the daylight, and LED ceiling lights.
Let me ask, was there anything, any person, any course, and resource, that particularly advanced your own skill and understanding? Do you now use a DSLR for your photos? Also, what app do you prefer for your collages? Fotor? BeFunky? They look great to me :-)
Oh, and the before / after photos!!!! Wow xx
Haha, I KNOW!!!! ewwwww! thought it would inspire fellow bloggers..if I can do it so can they!!
This little baby of a cake looks scrummy! I wish I’d taken the time to photograph it last week…. it would have meant eating a slice, right? Next time, next time :) Thanks for joining in with #FreeFromFridays.
Ah, the re-shooting recipes task! I’m on with that one too Rebecca. Your pictures have come on in leaps and bounds when you compare them side by side like that :-D And I have to say that your Pear & Chocolate Cake looks so delicious – it’s a flavour paring I really enjoy. Thankyou for linking up with #BakingCrumbs,
Angela x
It is good fun isn’t it Angela and thank you for your lovely compliment, you’re one of the foodie bloggers I use for photography inspiration x
Gosh this looks absolutely divine.Pear and Chocolate are one of my favourite combos so this is right up my street.New photos are fab too! I need to do the same too but I only just seem to find the time each week to post!!! Never mind produce bakes like this!!!Hats off to you guys!
Bless you thank you Jenny, I wonder whereon earth I get the time too x
I am doing the exact same thing at the moment and it is utterly hilarious to look back at some of the terrible photos I took 3 years ago and rather lovely to see how far I’ve come in the last 3 years. I am rather worried though that in 3 years time I am going to think the exact same thing and have to reshoot them all again!!! That story about Mel and Emma visiting and refusing cake made me laugh…that is exactly how we all think! My poor family have to put up with a lot of waiting for meals and ‘no you can’t eat that yet, I haven’t photographed it yet!’ Eb x
Honestly I had to laugh Eb! We did have soup and crusty bread too so the poor things didn’t leave with empty tummies! …I’m off to see if I can find an old bad photo on your blog….bet I can’t ;-) xx