Pear, Cardamom & Chocolate Cake

What do you do when someone you love is having a birthday...you are going to make them a cake...you have been bookmarking a recipe for a spectacularly indulgent chocolate fudge cake for weeks...and that someone decides to kickstart a healthy living-weight loss plan? 

Well, you decide that putting fruit and half wholemeal flour in a cake instead of glossy and  gooey chocolate ganache is one step closer to achieving a healthier cake (I won't say healthy cake...healthier). And it tastes every bit as lovely as that worshipped and anticipated recipe tear-out cake. In fact, probably better because you don't feel guilt ridden with the quantity of cream and sugar you would be consuming, and you feel all in all pleasingly sprightly and satisfied, rather than resigning yourself to the sofa for the rest of the evening. 

This is not to say that I will never make the anticipated chocolate fudge cake. It will happen - it just has to...the ganache is glossy and thick. It's an obligation. 

But whatever happens, I will definitely make this cake again. It looks so pretty, sends fierce aromas out of your oven, and tastes comforting, especially if you eat it when it's still cosy : )

I would like to thank Chocolate & Tea and SmittenKitchen for their posts that inspired me to add chocolate chips.

I would also like to thank the genius who first combined chocolate and cardamom. This partnership sort of roasts inside of you, in a very, very good way. It kindles a little glowing fire in your happy tummy. 

Pear, Cardamom & Chocolate Cake (serves 9) 

adapted from Simple Home Baking - Carol Pastor

900g (2lb) ripe pears     

lemon juice

40g (1 1/2 oz) butter

55g (2oz) caster sugar

55g (2oz) soft butter

110g (5oz) caster sugar

2 eggs

1 tbsp milk

couple drops of vanilla extract

1/2 tbsp rum or brandy (optional)

85g (3oz) each of plain flour and wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 cardamom pods (seeds removed and crushed) 

50 g (1 3/4 oz) chocolate chips 

pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C/350 degrees F.

Peel and core the fruit and but into inch sized chunks. Keep one pear (peeled and cored) and quarter it. This will decorate the top.

Brush with a little lemon juice.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the fruit. Add the sugar and cook for 15 minutes, turning occasionally. 

Beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well. Beat in the milk, alcohol and vanilla until smooth. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt, then add the crushed cardamom seeds and 3/4 of the chocolate chips. Stir lightly, do not over mix. 

Gently stir in the pear pieces (reserving the quartered one). 

Pour into a buttered and lined 9 inch round or square tin. Arrange the reserved pear quarters on top and push down very slightly (they cake will rise up around them a little more when baking). Then scatter over the rest of the chocolate chips and press them down a little, too. 

Bake for 40-50 minutes.