Chocolate cake with caramel poached pears and chocolate buttercream

Ingredients

For the chocolate cake

• 300g caster sugar
• 80g light muscovado sugar
• 180g dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa solids)• 130g butter, diced
• 1 tbsp espresso powder
• 170ml buttermilk
• 1 medium free-range egg, plus 2 medium egg yolks (reservethe whites for the buttercream)
•  300g plain flour
• 40g dutch-processed cocoa powder (such as Green& Black’s; see Know How)
• 1¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the caramel poached pears

• 300g caster sugar

• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 star anise
• 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways, seeds scraped
• 5 small firm pears, peeled (such as bosc, comice or williams)

For the chocolate swiss buttercream

• 150g caster sugar
• 140g egg whites (about 5)
• ¼ tsp salt
• 300g unsalted butter, diced and softened
• 100g dark chocolate, melted and cooled
• 100g milk chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

You’ll also need