Gluten-free chocolate pear cake

Ingredients

• 2 large ripe pears (600g)
• 3/4 cup (110g) potato starch
• 3/4 cup (100g) brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp (35g) cocoa powder
• 1 cup (200g) brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/3 cup (40g) linseed meal (ground linseed)
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup (250ml) vegetable oil
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Chocolate orange icing

• 1 1/2 cups of pure icing sugar
• 4 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 4 Tbsp melted margarine/oil
• Zest and juice of 1 orange
• boiling water to thin

 

Summary

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/350-375 F. Grease a 22cm (9inch) cake tin and line the base with a round of baking paper. Set aside.
2. Grate the pears over a plate. Discarding any large pieces of skin that wont grate. Pour grated pear into a sieve over a bowl and let any excess liquid drain off. (pour juice into a glass and enjoy chef, go on its yum!)
3. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl. Stir in grated pear, linseed meal, eggs, oil and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into cake tin and bake for about 45 mins or until a skewer comes out clean when pushed into the centre of cake.
4. Leave in the tin at least 5-10mins before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool. Ice with Jaffa icing once completely cool, eat and enjoy!
5. To make icing sift the icing sugar and cocoa into a medium bowl, add melted dairy-free spread/butter, zest and juice. Mix adding enough boiling water to achieve a good smooth spreadable consistency.

You can order organic pears when in season, along with many other groceries from our webstore.

Hints and Tips

This recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free. If you do choose to use apples in place of the pears, grate and then finely chop and then lower the amount of linseed meal to 1/4 cup (30g). You can easily grind the linseed yourself if you own a coffee/spice grinder or even in a blender in larger amounts. Keep any excess in the fridge and use sprinkled over breakfast cereals, porridge or salads. Your just going to have to trust me on the very small amount of raising agent used, I too was tempted to add baking powder also, but it really doesn’t need it.

Recipe & Photo from Emma Galloway’s blog "My Darling Lemon Thyme" at mydarlinglemonthyme.blogspot.com