Chocolate pear cake

An easy cake to bake that doubles as dessert if served warm.

Makes 24x24cm cake

100g butter

100g dark chocolate (at least 65% cacao), chopped 

4 medium eggs

100g golden caster sugar

1 cup ground almonds

4 small ripe pears, peeled, cored and quartered

Icing sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 170 fan bake. Grease the sides of 24x24cm spring form cake tin (feel free to use a 24cm round tin, it will just make a slightly deeper cake). Line bottom with baking paper.
2. In a small saucepan gently melt butter and chocolate over a low heat. Remove from heat, cover with a tea towel and set aside.
3. Separate the eggs into two bowls. Add sugar to the yolk and beat until very pale, thick and foamy. Whisk cooled chocolate/butter mix until smooth and fold into egg/sugar mix, along with almonds until a smooth batter. Beat egg whites until soft peak stage and fold these into the cake batter in 2-3 batches.
4. Gently scrape mixture into prepared tin. Arrange pear quaters, cut side down, on top (they will sink during cooking but don’t worry). Bake for 35-40 minutes until skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin before running a knife around the edges and releasing.
5. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm.