Chocolate and Pear Upside-down Cake

Hello, maties.  If you are in the UK, I hope you've come through the East Meets Emma weather unscathed.  I had my three days of snow fun, and then it was gone.

The weather has warmed dramatically and within a couple of days we moved from a real temperature of -10c to +10c.  What extremes, eh?

But enough of the weather.  We Brits are a tad obsessed by it, eh?

So it's business as usual here at Chez Pout.  Some walks on the warmer days and general cosiness and log fires is pretty much what's on the menu.  And this - a delicious puddingy cake!

Today I'd like to share a recipe with you, which I found in the Tesco magazine.  I do find that the Tesco mag has more tempting recipes than the Waitrose mag, and I leapt on this one as soon as I saw the pic, tore it out and added it to my stash pending my next baking day.
And that day was a bleak one yet this little chunk of sweetness  brought a smile to the table. My homemade pics aren't quite so good as Tesco's pro shots but I think you'll still get the gist and hopefully they will tempt you to make the cake too.  It's moist so best eaten warm as a pudding.  I think its moistness comes from the yoghurt.

I hate to waste effort when I can leverage my time spent on something, especially when cooking.  So I doubled the recipe and make two cakes.  I gave one cake away.   Honest!

Chocolate and Pear Upside-down Cake

Serves 12 (or six generously!)

Ingredients

For the fruit base

6 small ripe pears, peeled, cored and quartered

25gr butter, melted

30gr caster sugar

Single cream to serve

For the sponge

60gr coca powder

190gr salted butter, softened, plus extra for creasing

2 tbspn vegetable or sunflower oil

100ml low-fat natural yoghurt (I used full fat, of course 😃)

` 1 tspn vanilla extract

200gr caster sugar

100gr light soft brown sugar

225gr self-raising flour

1.5 tspn baking powder

3 eggs

Method

The fruit base

Preheat the oven to gas 4, 180c, fan 160c.

Put the pears in a baking dish with the melted butter and caster sugar, toss to coat.

Bake for 25 mins or until just tender.

Remove and set aside until cool enough to handle.

The sponge

Grease a 20cm round springform cake tin and line the base with non-stick baking paper.

(I used a loaf tin and one of the baking paper fitted inserts I keep to hand.  I think this loaf shape makes for easier cutting.)

Arrange the pears in a tight circle over the base, with the thin ends in the centre (I alternated the direction of each quarter for my loaf tin, but they do move around a bit when you pour on the batter).

Drizzle over any juices from the baking dish.

Mix the cocoa with 100ml boiling water until smooth.  With an electric whisk, beat the butter, oil, yoghurt, cocoa mix, vanilla, sugar, flour and baking powder in a large bowl for 2 mins until smooth and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time.  Pour over the pears and shake gently to level out.

Bake for 1hr-1hr 10 mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. (I cooked for less time, so check your cake after, say 40 mins). 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 mins in the tin before turning out onto a serving plate, so the pears are facing up.

Serve warm with the cream drizzled over, if using, or leave to cool completely and serve as a cake.

You will sooo enjoy this!

A la perchoine.