Happy ‘world chocolate day’ guys! Hope you are celebrating by eating your weight in {dark} chocolate. I also hope you are able to watch chocolatier Willy Wonka in his delicious chocolate kingdom or see Bruce gobble up THE chocolate cake and eating or drinking some chocolate alongside them!
The weather around here has been so pleasant and downright gorgeous past few days. It hasn’t been raining as much as I would like but it’s been cool and breezy. So on one such lovely Sunday evening, I was craving something chocolatey and wanted to bake this delicious Life By Chocolate Cake from the blog archives which is embellished on top with red pear halves and cinnamon but instead decided to bake something new for the blog. I had ripe red pears which were begging to be used so this time I used them pears whole and added orange zest and juice to the mix! It’s a straight forward recipe using simple pantry ingredients except for red pears which are by the way in season right now so go find them before they disappear.
Have a lovely Friday guys!
| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | 55 minutes |
| Servings |
slices
|
- 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 oranges zest
- 1 cup dark brown cane sugar, Add 1/3 cup more if you prefer sweeter bakes
- 1/2 cup flavourless oil
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup yogurt, at room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup orange juice, freshly squeezed preferably
- 4 smallish-medium red pears, use ripe but firm pears
Ingredients
|
|
- Preheat the oven at 170°C/350°F. Grease the 8×4-inch loaf pan with oil and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, whisk together orange zest and cane sugar. One by one, whisk in oil, egg, yogurt and vanilla until completely incorporated. Peel the pears at this stage.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with orange juice, mixing gently with rubber spatula. Start and end with dry ingredients. Do not overmix. The batter will be thick but if the consistency is too thick to even stir add a splash of orange juice.
- Pour the batter in your prepared loaf pan and arrange the four whole pears at the equidistance, pushed in to the batter (as seen in the picture below). Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with few moist crumbs. Do not overbake as it may make the final product dry. Let the cake rest in the loaf pan for about 10 minutes before inverting it on a cooling rack. Let cool a bit before slicing. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream or a spoon of plain greek yogurt. The cake stays fresh for 3-4 days in refrigerator when stored in an airtight container.
