Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake

It’s story time boys and girls.

Last weekend, the weather was garbage. We headed up to Marchesi Vineyards to drop off photos, and you can’t hit up the vineyard without a little wine tasting, right? It definitely made the garbage weather that much better. While we were there I kept eyeing these huge crates of fresh picked pears. Okay, so they weren’t fresh picked, and most definitely headed toward ripe with a quickness, but I still wanted them. It was a u-pick scenario for $5 a bag. A steal. I had a mental note to grab some on our way out [Andrew was much more focused on another four bottles of wine for our stash], but as we were heading out, we were told to just take some. Score! I managed to part the fruit flies like the Red Sea and pick some of the not-so-bruised-battered-and-overly-ripe ones.

By morning, the fruit flies were back, and the lovely sack of pears were begging to be used ASAP. I’m not used to having pears in the house, let alone that many. To the Google Reader! I love the search feature. I came across this bittersweet chocolate and pear cake from Deb at Smitten Kitchen. She makes the most beautiful things, so this was definitely doable. This isn’t a hard cake, but that’s definitely on the fancy end of my skills. There is a lot of whipping of eggs. I’m always scared of that. I don’t know why. I just associate it with fancy, difficult things. I’m weird like that.

It went off without a hitch, as far as I could tell. Batter was light, whipped, and fluffy. It tasted divine. I poured it into its pan, put it in the oven, and crossed my fingers. I had hesitations that these pears were just a little too overripe. That they’d wet the batter too much and weigh it down. I checked at the specified time with a toothpick and it came out clear, but a small part of me felt I was being fooled. The edges were golden brown and spongey, so I decided to roll with it. What did I know?

About 10 minutes into cooling, I came to check on it, and alas the middle sunk. Sad times. I had one piece, and the edges were great, but the middle was sorely undercooked. Live and learn, I guess, you can’t win them all.

Make this cake. Do better than me. I’ll try it again someday.