I love the chunks of juicy pear inside this Chocolate and Pear Loaf Cake. Every slice has bursts of sweet pear, complementing the rich dark chocolate sponge perfectly. A gorgeous treat and a fantastic alternative to a basic chocolate loaf cake.
Chocolate and Pear Loaf Cake is wonderful. Chocolate and pear is a classic combination that always tastes good.
This cake has plenty of pear bits distributed through the rich chocolate batter, so you get regular bursts of sweet, juicy fruit with every slice.
It’s gorgeous. The perfect refreshing treat for chocolate lovers.
What Kind of Chocolate Should You Use for a Pear and Chocolate Cake?
This is a Dark Chocolate and Pear Loaf Cake.
I switch from my usual milk to dark chocolate, because I just think the richer flavour complements the sweet pear better. It’s great. It would work with milk though if that’s what you prefer.
Baking with Fresh Pear
Pears are a wonderful fruit to bake with because the flavour is quite mild and pears themselves are very juicy. This helps to stop your cake drying out while adding a great, subtle flavour.
What Kind of Pears are Best for Baking?
When I make my chocolate and pear cake I usually use a simple conference pear.
Personally, I prefer to bake with fairly firm pears, and not really juicy soft ones.
I think most pears would work in a chocolate and pear cake recipe though, so experiment with your favorites or the ones that you’ve got in.
Will the Pears Sink to the Bottom of the Cake?
Any big chunks in the middle of a cake, whether pear or otherwise, are going to sink slightly. There’s not much that you can do about it, especially if you are using a thin batter like this one, for a soft cake.
A thicker batter would hold the pear in place more effectively, but the cake would be much denser, you’d lose the light texture, and I don’t think that it is worth it.
A few chunks sinking to the bottom isn’t going to hurt, but to limit this as much as possible, I try to keep my pear chunks to around 1cm, so they aren’t too heavy, and I lightly toss them in a little flour, before gently folding them into the cake mix. This helps them to stay put.
For more baking help, read my top tips for getting the perfect loaf cake – every time!
Decorating a Chocolate and Pear Loaf Cake
You might have noticed, I’m a big fan of lashings of buttercream on top of a loaf cake. I think it looks fab, and without the layer you’d get in the middle of a sandwich cake, buttercream topping keeps it moist and adds an extra layer of flavour.
But, what flavour to use on a Chocolate and Pear Loaf? I’m never sure. Pear, I don’t think it is a strong enough flavour for such as sweet, buttery icing.
But, chocolate buttercream, on a dark chocolate cake I think would just overpower the pear completely.
Toffee, I think could be great. Mix a little toffee sauce with your basic buttercream recipe, adding a little more icing sugar to thicken it up if needed.
But, to be honest, I prefer to just drizzle a little (lot) dark chocolate over the top. I melt my chocolate in a little pan and then use a piping bag to roughly drizzle it over.
You’ve got pear inside to keep your cake moist, and I don’t think this Pear and Chocolate Cake misses icing at all.
Can You Freeze a Chocolate and Pear Loaf Cake?
This cake will only stay fresh for a couple of days before the fruit starts to go a bit…soggy? So, another option is chopping it in half and freezing one side.
Wrap it tightly once cooled, and pop it straight in the freeze. Thaw slowly, and consume within 2 days. It should be fine!
Other Easy Loaf Cake Recipes
- Chocolate Loaf Cake
- Lemon Curd Cake
- Coffee Cake
- Lemon and Blueberry Cake
- Nutella Loaf with Nutella Buttercream
Chocolate and Pear Loaf Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 12 Slices 1x
Description
Every slice of this Chocolate and Pear Cake has bursts of sweet pear, complementing the rich dark chocolate sponge perfectly. A gorgeous treat and a fantastic alternative to a basic chocolate loaf cake.
Ingredients
- 2 Pears (peeled cored and chopped into 1cm chunks)
- 75 g Dark Chocolate (Broken into squares – plus extra to drizzle – optional)
- 170 g Caster Sugar
- 170 g butter (or margarine)
- 3 Eggs
- 140 g Self-raising flour (plus 2 tablespoons extra to dust pears)
- 30 g Cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees (fan assisted, 180 if not) and grease a cake tin.
- Once the chunks of pear are ready, lightly toss in a little flour, to limit sinking.
- Carefully melt the chocolate until smooth and leave to cool slightly.
- Cream together the butter and sugar.
- Add the eggs, mixing in one at a time.
- Sift in the flour and cocoa and fold until even.
- Gently stir through the melted chocolate.
- Add the pears and carefully fold through the mixture until they are evenly distributed.
- Pour the mix into your cake tin and spread evenly.
- Bake for around 1 hour, testing to see if it is cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre, if cooked it will come out clean.
- Leave in the tin to cool for 10 minutes.
- Tip onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- If adding drizzle, carefully melt a few more squares of dark chocolate and use either a spoon or piping bag to roughly drizzle over the top of the cake.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Inactive Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hours
- Category: Cakes
- Cuisine: worldwide
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 285kcal
- Sugar: 20g
- Sodium: 250mg
- Fat: 16g
- Saturated Fat: 9g
- Unsaturated Fat: 6g
- Trans Fat: 1g
- Carbohydrates: 33g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 4g
- Cholesterol: 77mg
