twigg studios

A British baking blog, food photography

olivers travels blogger retreat and chocolate almond and pear cake

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choc pear almond-1-14 I was invited to do a cake demo at a bloggers retreat hosted by Olivers travels and I made this chocolate, almond cake with amaretto poached pears and amaretto mascarpone cream. it was really tasty and I think every one enjoyed it. I had such an amazing weekend at the retreat and made so many great friends. we stayed at Amberstone manner in chumleigh it was so beautiful. choc pear almond-1-12 choc pear almond-1-3 choc pear almond-1-7 choc pear almond-1-8 choc pear almond-1-9 choc pear almond-1-13 cake recipe

  • 185g unsalted butter
  • 150g dark chocolate (70%)
  • 125ml semi skimmed milk
  • 160g self raising flour
  • 40g ground almonds
  • 225g golden caster sugar
  • 150g light brown sugar
  • 3 tbsp. cocoa powder
  • 3 large eggs
  • 75ml sour cream
  • 50g flaked almonds
preheat the oven to 160c
in a pan add the milk, butter and chocolate, heat gently until the butter and chocolate has melted then set aside to cool, in a big bowl mix the flour, ground almonds, cocoa, sugars and a pinch of salt then add the eggs and milk together. add the sour cream to the chocolate mixture the pour into the bowl and mix together, finally add the flaked almonds and mix in.
pour into three 20cm loose bottom tins and bake for about 45 minutes or until a knife comes away clean when inserted in the centre of the cake.
  for poached pears
  • 60ml amaretto
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1 vanilla pod
  • water (enough to cover)
  • 6 pears

peel the pears and place them in a deep saucepan, then cover with water and add the amaretto, sugar, bay leaves and then score the vanilla pod with a sharp knife and add into the pan, heat gently until it comes to the boil. cut a piece of baking paper to fit the pan and cut a hole in the centre of it and place on to the top of the pan so it floats in top. heat for about 20 minutes. remove the pears with a slotted spoon and place on a plate and cover with tin foil for 10 minutes, then remove the foil and let cool. slice three of the pears discarding the centres and leave the others for the top 0f the cake.

for the cream

  • 300g mascarpone
  • 200ml double cream
  • 60ml amaretto
  • 7 tbsp. icing sugar

whip the cream and mascarpone and icing sugar until peaks start to form then add the amaretto and mix until stiff to build the cake place one layer of sponge on a cake stand and add some of the cream then place some sliced pears on top, crush 3 amaretti biscuits on top (I got some shop bought ones these are optional) and add the next layer, (this recipe makes three layers I used two in the photos above) spoon the rest of the cream on top and use a pallet knife to spread it around the sides of the cake. place the three left over pears on top of the cake, and place a bay leaf into the top, crush some more amaretti biscuits over the top and sprinkle on some sliced almonds.

 

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25 Comments

  5. Hi,
    this looks amazing and I’m going to make it this weekend for my Mum’s birthday. Can I just check when you’ve poached the pears do you leave them to dry out slightly/ put them on kitchen paper or do you assemble at the last minute so the cake doesn’t go soggy?
    Thanks

  6. Hi…Just wanna asking about the milk for the cake ..Izzit 125 ml for chocolate mixture and 125ml for cake mixture?

  7. Firstly I want to say I love your recipes and photography, so inspirational, thank you for sharing!
    This is my first adventure into big cake making, yikes!!!!!
    Do I need to bake all three tins at once or can I do it individually one after another? Do they go in the middle of the oven?
    Thanks!
    Teresa

  8. Se ve delicioso este pastel; linda presentació y no se diga de las bellas imagenes de los lugares

  9. I made this cake as I was curious to the flavour and texture. It was tasty but I did find this.. I didn’t use the white sugar because it’s not needed in my opinion as the brown sugar is very sweet. It also only takes 15 minutes to cook so if I walked away from it, it would have been burnt.so please change this on the recipe as many others may burn their cake. It’s a brownie basically rather than cake and each layer stands Less than an inch high as there has been no air added into it and the sr flour doesn’t really give any lift to such a dense mixture. hence your photo giving height putting all of the frosting ingredients inside it. It’s a edible cake and tasty i won’t say it’s not. The frosting of course balances that richness and the pears help cut through all of that. Great pear-ing :p

  10. miss aimee, I happened upon your almond chocolate pear cake searching for dessert recipes….and then I looked at your instagram. my god! do you make calendars, or centerfolds I can hide under the mattress for days I don’t feel like cooking? beautiful pics and everything looks delicious.

  11. Hi Aimee. I want to make this cake, but there’s no such thing as self raising flour in my country. How much baking powder should I use to compensate? ‘m so excited to try out your recipes, there are so many beutiful ones! Thank you!

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