Italian Dark Chocolate Pear Cake

This Dark Chocolate Pear Cake, is a delicious Italian cake made with fresh pears and rich dark chocolate. A dessert, snack or even breakfast cake everyone will love.

Dark Chocolate Pear Cake even the name sounds lovely doesn’t it? This is one of the Italian’s favourite Cakes. He loves it along side a cup of coffee or dunked in his cafe latte in the morning.

A little History of Chocolate in Italy

When I first moved to Italy and it was the start of summer all of a sudden there was no chocolate to be seen, anywhere, (except of course chocolate gelato).

Not in the grocery stores, not in the coffee shops not in friends’ houses, nope, nadda niente! Needless to say that was very devastating for me, I adore chocolate. I would make a chocolate stash in the spring just to hold me out until the Fall.

So why you ask was there no chocolate in the summer? Well, because Italians believed that chocolate would make you even hotter, “calorosso”, (temperature wise hot!), not a good thing when temperatures would reach 40° celcius they would say.

But once fall hit, the Chocolate and the Chocolate Recipes would be flying. It seems no one could get enough. Easy to understand when it’s gone for three months!

Recipe Ingredients

• Chocolate – good quality dark chocolate
• Butter – I use salted
• Sugar – granulated or fine sugar
• Eggs – large room temperature
• Yogurt – greek yogurt
• Baking powder
• Bake soda –
• Salt –
• Flour – cake/pastry flour or you can use all purpose
• Pears – 1 large or 2 small/medium cut into cubes
• Powdered sugar – also known as icing or confectioners sugar

How to make homemade Pastry/Cake flour

For every cup of all purpose flour, remove two tablespoons and replace with two tablespoons of corn starch. Be sure to sift the flour and cornstarch together a couple of times, this way it is sure to be properly combined and lump free. Cake flour in cakes will give you a very tender texture and fine crumb, it will also help the cake to rise.

How to make it

In a small bowl over a pot of boiling water (make sure water does not touch bottom of bowl) melt chocolate (broken into pieces) and butter, when they have almost melted remove bowl from heat and stir until smooth. (let cool).

In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl beat eggs and sugar until creamy, add the cooled melted chocolate, yogurt, milk and flour mixture.

Beat until smooth, fold in the chopped pears and combine gently, spoon into the prepared cake pan.

Bake for approximately 35 minutes (test with a toothpick). Let cool, remove from the pan, dust with powdered sugar before serving. 

What is bain-marie?

It is basically a fancy french term for a hot water bath. To do this, place a pot with water on the burner and a plate on top with the ingredient that needs to be melted or heated. If you are melted chocolate be sure that the water in the pot does not touch the bottom of the dish. Heat the water to a slow boil and stir the chocolate until completely melted and smooth.

What are the best pears for baking

The best pears for baking are the Anjou which is firm and mild tasting, the Bartlett (Williams) a nice juicy pear or the Bosc which is crisp and sweet. Make sure to use pears that are firm but ripe.

In Italy I always use a Williams Pear which is very easily found here, and I find it perfect whenever I make a cake, although I do usually purchase them when they are ripe but on the firmer side.

What makes a cake fall

• There are a lot a reasons a cake may fall, but the most common ones are, your oven temperature is off, you can always check it with an oven  thermometer to check this.
• You open the oven door too early to check on the cake, it’s best to wait at least 25-30 minutes.
• Once the batter is mixed it should be baked, letting a cake batter sit too long can cause it to fall. The baking powder or baking soda usually start acting immediately and will only last for a very short period of time, therefore if the cake batter is left to stand before baking then there is always a risk that the baking powder or soda will have expired by the time that the cake goes into the oven.
• Your baking powder or soda has expired and is no long active.
• The pan size might not be the correct size, sometimes using a bundt pan will help.

How to store it

The completely cooled cake should be wrapped well or stored in an airtight container, store the cake in the refrigerator. It will keep for up to 4-5 days in the fridge.

How to freeze the Chocolate Pear Cake

To freeze the cake, wrap the completely cooled cake in plastic wrap then place in a freezer safe bag, it will keep for up to 1-2 months in the freezer. 

This Dark Chocolate Pear Cake is one of those worth waiting for Fall cakes. Made with a delicious dark chocolate and lovely ripe pears make this a tasty Italian cake, no need for any icing.

A little sprinkle of powdered sugar and you have the perfect dessert. I think the combination of Pears and Dark Chocolate were made for one another. Enjoy!

More Delicious Italian Cakes

• Italian Mother-in-law Cake
• Easy Italian Apple Cake
• Tablespoon Italian Lemon Cake
• Classic Italian Bundt Cake

Updated from September 4, 2015.