A Cake to Welcome Autumn

It was one foggy weekend where all was mist and wet, glistening grass. The start to this fall has been full these kind of days, yet I am always enchanted by how mystical the fog makes everything appear. I get so excited to just go outside and capture something in the midst of my lens, to catch the moment of mystery and blankness. So I decided to bake something up in my kitchen that I could take with me, on my walk in the misty woods… getting lost in its beauty, you forget about everything that’s going onion your life, as we constantly have millions of thoughts flowing through our heads… at least I know I do at the moment, wishing I could escape it all. Thankfully for that I have my friend, the oven 🙂

Just as we reached the forest grounds, we headed further into the changing coloured trees to a stump we stopped at once before. There were mushrooms all over the fallen stump, hugging the wood like clams on an ocean rock after the tide had pulled in. Bright green moss covered the entire wood, everything was perfectly in place for my afternoon Autumn shoot.

Now is the season for all those crisp apples, sweet pears, spectrums of colourful pumpkins, veggies glowing of greens, oranges, reds, purples, you name it! I had bought a bag of small yellow pears and delicious as they were on their own, I really wanted to make something out of them, you know, some sort of dessert (because I can’t drink my tea or coffee by itself 🙂 So I remembered I had saved some months ago a recipe on my Pinterest board, of a dark chocolate, almond and pear loaf. It reminded me so much of that sumptuous cake I had back at the FWE workshop I attended in Bordeaux last year, made by the talented Nora and Laura form Food Stories. I felt this is a staple in my Fall book of recipes, and just had to bake this beauty!

 

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Pear, Chocolate & Almond Cake (adapted from Little Berries & Co.)

Ingredients:

• 3 medium pears
• 150g dark chocolate
• 50 ml amaretto (I didn’t have it on hand, so I just used almond essence)
• 120g butter (room temperature)
• 120g sugar
• 4 eggs
• 100g almond meal
• 30g flour
• 1tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350 F/180 degrees C

1. Combine the chocolate and amaretto (or almond essence) in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan with simmering water, and heat until the chocolate has melted and becomes smooth. Remove from heat and let cool while still runny.
2. In a large bowl, whisk butter and sugar until pale and creamy. One by one add the eggs and beat well into butter/sugar mixture. Add the chocolate, almond meal, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix all until well combined.
3. Grease with butter the loaf tin and dust with flour (so cake doesn’t stick to the tin). Pour the batter into the ready loaf tin.
4. Place the whole pears deep into the batter and put into the oven to bake for about 40-45 min, until tested with a skewer (or toothpick) and comes out clean. Once out of the oven, let cake cool in tin 10-20 min. before taking out of the form to completely cool. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Bon appetit!

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Just as the trees were beginning to change color, everything was still so green yet you could smell that autumn breeze reminding you a change of season was approaching. As short as my time was in the woods (before the rain came in), I am thankful I was able to spend a day out in the fresh air with some of the best people by my side.

By listening to what my heart tells me is my passion, makes me feel whole. I hope by sharing all my little moments, adventures, and food, I inspire something within you. Its always one of my greatest pleasures to be able to share every story with you, truly.

 

With kindness,

 Marielou