Dark Chocolate Cake With Marsala Pears Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Gently heat the prunes and Marsala over a low heat until hot. Remove from the heat and leave for about 1 hr or until the prunes have absorbed almost all of the liquid. Whizz the prunes and any remaining booze in a food processor until roughly chopped.
• Butter and line the base of a 20cm springform tin. Dust with cocoa, tip out any excess and reserve. Melt the butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir in the prune mix.
• Whisk the sugars, 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks until pale, thick and doubled in volume. Fold the chocolate mixture and vanilla into the egg mixture, then sift over the ground almonds, flour and remaining cocoa. Fold until everything is combined.
• Whisk the egg whites until stiff and gently fold into the mixture. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 20-25 mins or until a light crust has formed. Allow to cool in the tin - it will sink and crack as it cools. Remove from the tin and dust with cocoa before serving.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Clean, peal and core the pears with a corer tool, put them in a sauce pan in vertical position and cook them with the apple juice and drizzle with the Marsala. Cook until soft. Keep one of them with the stalk. In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the chocolate and than add 80g of butter mix until smooth and the chili. Meanwhile, in a bowl whisk the 4 eggs white with a table spoon of the sugar until stiff. In an another bowl mix together, the 4 egg yolks and the left butter and sugar until smooth. Let the chocolate cool down a little than add to the egg´s yolk mix. Whisk until the chocolate will be well incorporate. Now add the flour, the baking powder, the salt, and whisk it. Add the eggs white and stir gently. Cut in a half 3 of the 4 pears. Cover the surface of a springform pan (25cm diameter) with butter. Put all the final mix into the pan, place the pears in circle and the whole pear with the stalk in the middle. Sprinkle the surface with the hazelnuts. Cover the pear in the middle with the aluminum foil and bake the cake for 40 minutes.