Chocolate Loaf Cake with Mulled Wine Poached Pears & Sea Salt Whipped Cream

Whole Bosc pears gently poached in flavorful mulled wine before being baked into a rich chocolate loaf cake. Served with sea salt and vanilla bean soft whipped cream.

Pear season is upon us! While winter is definitely lacking in the fruit department, the 6 week window where the pears are fantastic should not be ignored! During this time of year, I’m equally inspired by the pears as I am by deep, dark chocolate, undoubtedly due to the shortened hours of daylight and desire for rich, comforting foods.

So, we have this loaf cake. Last year, I developed a Cabernet buttercream that paired so beautifully with my Dark Chocolate Olive Oil Cake, that I felt a hankering to do something else with wine and chocolate. This lead to poaching the pears in mulled wine and incorporating some of that wine into the batter for a cohesive wine, chocolate, and spice flavor profile.

Because loaf cakes are structurally denser than a normal sponge, I opted for a butter based batter instead of my usual olive oil. The cake is moist, soft, but dense, supporting the upright pears. Of course, you do not have to keep the pear stems intact, but I feel this adds a fun, whimsical component. As usual, your kitchen, your rules!

To finish this cake, I’ve selected a sea salt whipped cream. The whipped cream adds lovely textural, temperature, and flavor contrasts, balancing the otherwise very rich and dense dessert. You can omit the whipped cream, but I would advise against it.

I hope you love this dessert as much as I do and as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts.