Chocolate and Pear Upside Pudding...

Had some friends and family over for lunch on Sunday so my grandma brought her incredible apple crumble (I'll post the recipe when I get a chance) and I made some chocolate meringues (See the recipe I posted for the chocolate pavlova and just use the mixture to make individual ones, cook for about 45mins and leave to cool in the oven, serve with ice cream and fruit) and one of my favourite ever desserts... Chocolate and Pear upside down cake/pudding. We were all stuffed for a long while afterwards!

The pudding: It's basically caramelised pears with a cake base on top and then you cook it in the oven and invert it onto a plate! It doesn't present that well but it's so scrummy....

From Market Kitchen 

For the pears:

35g butter

125g light brown sugar

4 ripe pears, peeled cored and thickly sliced lengthways

150g dark chocolate (either chips or a bar broken into chunks)

For the sponge:

40g cocoa powder

150g plain flour

1/2tsp bicarb of soda

1tsp baking powder

2 large eggs

125g light brown sugar

200ml buttermilk

75ml vegetable oil

Ice cream or cream to serve.

Method:

Pears - Melt the butter in a 20-25cm ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat. Stir in the sugar and heat for 2-3mins (stirring all the time) until the sugar's dissolved and it's a light golden-brown colour

Remove from the heat and scatter the pears over the caramel in a round circle, then dot the pieces of chocolate in. Set aside (You can make this a few hours in advance but don't put it in the fridge).

Sponge - Sift the cocoa, flour, bicarb and baking powder into a bowl. Then stir in the eggs, sugar, buttermilk and oil. - Don't overmix or the sponge may become heavy. (You can leave this mix in the fridge for a couple of hours)

Then when ready to cook, pour the cake mix over the pears making sure all is covered.

Bake for about 30minutes, at 200c/gas 6, but mine could have done with some extra cooking - it's hard to tell with a skewer because of the melted chocolate.

Leave to sit in the pan for about 2minutes and then quickly invert onto a plate so the pears are on top. - Put a plate over the whole pan and then swiftly flip over and hope that it all comes out well!