Chocolate & pear cake

• pack butter↗250g g

  melted, plus a little extra for the tin

• caster sugar↗250g g
• self-raising flour↗200g g
• wholemeal flour↗50g g
• ground almond↗100g g
• baking powder↗1 tsp tsp
• mixed spice2 tsp tsp
• ground cinnamon↗1 tsp tsp
• good grating nutmeg↗
• whole hazelnut↗50g g

  finely chopped

• whole almond↗50g g

  with skins on, finely chopped

• pistachio↗50g g

  finely chopped

• macadamia nut↗50g g

  finely chopped

• dark chocolate↗100g g

  finely chopped, or dark chocolate chips

• large eggs↗3

  beaten

• almond extract↗1 tsp
• pears↗2

  peeled, cored and diced

• pot soured cream300ml
• dark chocolate↗100g

  broken into chunks

• milk chocolate↗100g

  broken into chunks

Step-by-step instructions

1. 1

   Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Butter and line the base and sides of a deep, 20cm loose-bottomed round cake tin. Mix the sugar, flours, ground almonds, baking powder and spices in a big bowl. Mix together the chopped nuts. Set aside 2 heaped tbsp of them for decoration and stir the rest into the dry ingredients with the chopped chocolate or chips. Whisk together the melted butter, eggs and almond extract.

2. 2

   Tip the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir thoroughly to combine, then fold in the diced pear. Scrape the mixture into the tin and bake for 45 mins, then cover with foil and bake for 20 mins more until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Cool in the tin overnight.

3. 3

   For the icing, put the soured cream and chocolate chunks in a small pan. Heat very gently, stirring, until melted. Chill until spreadable (overnight is fine).

4. 4

   Remove the cake from the tin, spread over the icing and scatter with the reserved nuts.