February 13, 2018
(last updated July 11, 2022) 
This rich, elegant vegan chocolate pear cake is the most wonderful holiday dessert. Perfect for Christmas, but delightful at any time of year!
I really, really, really love this chocolate pear cake.
It started as a vanilla cake with pears and dark chocolate chunks. But the next few times I tried it, I went with a chocolate-on-chocolate version instead.
This double chocolate variety—chocolate cake, chocolate chunks—is now my go-to. This is the cake that I make for Christmas every year. It’s elegant yet simple, decadent but not gooey or overly rich.
And with the exception of a few people in my life who are either allergic to, or strongly dislike chocolate, I’ve never shared it with anyone who didn’t love it.
Chocolate & pears: an unexpectedly wonderful pairing
Chocolate and fruit is a hit-or-miss combination for me. I love chocolate and raspberries together. But I’ve never loved the equally popular chocolate and orange.
Most of the time, I like for chocolate cake to be simple and relatively unadorned. Maybe a swirl of good frosting or a little glaze, as in this beloved bundt cake.
Much to my surprise, I learned that chocolate and pear is a pretty popular pairing. And when I tried it in this chocolate pear cake, I could see why. The slight bitterness of dark chocolate works beautifully with the rich sweetness of ripe, seasonal pears.
In addition, the pears give the cake moisture. I fold half of the chopped pear into the cake batter itself. (If you fold all of the pair pieces in, they tend to sink collectively to the bottom.) Then, I top the cake with the rest of the pear and a big handful of dark chocolate chunks.
It all gets finished with a dusting of sparkling or cane sugar. That’s it: no frosting, no trimming or leveling, no fancy holiday decorations. These ingredients speak for themselves.
The cake is refined-sugar-free without that dusting, so it’s optional if you’d prefer to skip it. But I have to admit that I love the crispy, slightly caramelized topping it creates, which you can probably spot in the photos.
I based the cake itself off of a Peter Berley recipe from The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen, one that has served me very well in the past. It makes for a runny batter, and it’s important to let the cake bake until the top is truly set before taking it out of the oven. If you take it out too early, it’ll collapse, especially with the weight of chocolate and fruit. I usually give it a full 45 minutes, though I’d recommend you start checking at the 40 minute mark. When the top feels set (gently tap it with your finger to see) and is rounded, the cake is ready. If you need to give it up to 50-55 minutes, that’s OK. Here’s the recipe.
Vegan Dark Chocolate Pear Cake
Author –Yields: 10 slices
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (180g)
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder (25g)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 cup maple or agave syrup (180ml)
- 2/3 cup cold water (160ml)
- 1/3 cup neutral vegetable oil (80ml; I use refined avocado, grapeseed, or safflower oil)
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 ripe pear, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped (60g)
- 1 tablespoon sparkling, demerara or cane sugar, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F and lightly oil or line a 9 inch springform cake dish with parchment.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
- In another mixing bowl, whisk together the syrup, water, oil, and vinegar. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk to combine thoroughly, but it’s OK if there are a few small clumps. Fold half of the pear into the cake, then pour the batter into the pan. Top with the remaining pear and the chocolate. If you like, sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar over the top of the cake.
- Transfer the cake to the oven and bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is rounded and set. Remove it from the oven. Allow it to cool for a whole hour, then you can release it from the springform pan. I recommend allowing it to cool for another couple hours before slicing: the dark chocolate will be very melty at first, and it’s better to give it some time! Enjoy.
Notes
*You can use the same amount of a trusted GF, all purpose flour blend.
The cake is such a wintertime treat: chocolatey but not overly rich, sweet but not cloying, and the dark chocolate chunks make it feel fancy and festive in spite of the fact that it’s really pretty easy to make. You can definitely try the cake with a gluten-free, all purpose flour blend; I haven’t tried that yet, but I strongly suspect it’ll work. Just opt for a brand or homemade blend that you really trust and have had good experience with making 1-to-1 substitutions in the past.
As I mentioned on Sunday, my work this month is to stay open, soft, and loving, which includes sending a lot of love to you all for February 14th, and in general. Have a happy Valentine’s Day, if you feel like celebrating it, and I’ll be back at the end of this week with an enthusiastic review of Hannah Kaminsky‘s latest vegan cookbook masterpiece.
xo
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Leave a Comment
Can I substitute the chocolate for cocoa powder? According to google it should be approx 6 tbsp and 2 tbsp of oil? Also can I bump up the pears? I’ve got a lot of hard pears to use up. Nigella uses two cans, approx 500 grammes. As they’re hard, should I soften them first or should baking soften them enough? Is steaming, microwaving, or another method most effective for softening hard pears btw? It’s a frequent problem! Lots of questions but you hopefully know better than me. Thank you.
Hi Tracey, I just updated the recipe with metric equivalents! For the oil, it should be 80ml (5 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon—it’s a liquid measurement). I wouldn’t substitute extra cocoa powder for the chocolate. You can simply omit the 2 oz. dark chocolate from the recipe.
For the pears, per this article, I’d recommend poaching in simple syrup as the best way to soften if you need to use the pears immediately. David Lebovitz has a good article on how to poach pears, which should help.
I hope the recipe turns out!
I am wondering if I could use peaches. Any thoughts?
Hi Regina! I wouldn’t necessarily think to pair peaches and chocolate, but if you like that combination, you should try it! I think that from a texture/technical perspective, it’ll definitely work 🙂
I made a mistake by folding in the chocolate at the combining stage. It was still delicious and so interesting with the pear encrusting the top. I used Bob red mills GF flour and xanthan gum. It was So Good. I will be returning to this recipe a lot. Thank you.
So glad you enjoyed it! And great to hear about your GF modification, too.
Loved the texture of this cake. Super moist and fluffy. I wish I had omitted the cinnamon, I find that it overpowers the pear and chocolate flavors. To me, this tastes like a cinnamon cake.
Hiya, i am currently doing Veganuary so can’t wait to bake this ! is there another egg substitute i could use instead of apple cider vinegar in this recipe ? or is that the best one.
Will be posting my results on my food insta @kellykitchen18 if you would like to check it out 🙂
Hi Georgina! White vinegar is also fine, as is lemon juice 🙂
Had some pears that I wanted to bake into something and this was just the thing for them. Perfectly moist and just the right level of sweetness! I did run out of maple syrup (only had 1/2 cup) so I substituted the last 1/4 cup with sugar and it worked beautifully. Can’t wait to make this again.
Hooray! I’m so glad it turned out nicely.
So yummy. I had to substitute coconut sugar & water mixture for the maple syrup. It turned out great. It’s definitely going into my permanent recipe collection.
I’m so glad!
The flavour was very good! However, the texture came out a bit gelled. We still had it but wondering if we made something wrong or what should the actual texture be like?
Hi Ana! I think it just needs more time in the oven. The top should be moist but firm, with chunks of chocolate, and the rest of the cake should be normal cake texture. Give it an extra 5-10 minutes in the oven next time, and see how that goes 🙂 Additionally, you can use an oven thermometer to make sure the oven is the right temperature (some run hot, some cold). I hope that helps!
Wonderful. I halved the recipe and used a 6 inch springform pan (there’s only 2 of us). I love how easy it is, but looks really fancy when it’s all baked up. Super light and delicious too.
This was great! Made with cardamom instead of cinnamon but no other changes. Brought it to a dinner party and everyone loved it. The crunchy topping is wonderful!
Thanks
So glad you liked it!
Made this into 7 cupcakes with 85% dark chocolate pieces, without the pear. They were on the less sweet side, but were perfect for me and tasted wonderful. Thanks!
I’d love to try this cake, it looks really delicious 🙂 Is it possible to substitute the maple syrup for regular sugar? I have no liquid sweetener at home in the moment
Yes, I think that will work. Try 3/4 cup cane sugar and add to the wet ingredients!
It’s lovely. I glad to read this.
Restaurant type of cake. Very nice. Thank you for separate making box and have the print option.
Thanks for sharing Gena. I’ve always had this love-at-first-bite thing with chocolate pear cake. I first prepared it during the spring of 2013 and there is no week that passes by that I do not take make it at least once. But the weird thing is, my approach is kinda different from yours. I’ll definitely try yours as well.
This is delicious, very light and great texture. Thank you.
So glad you liked it!
Reading about this cake is making mouth water now. Looks absolutely stunning!
A lovely cake! Not too sweet, and a great texture. Perfect for coffee and tea, or a slice in the evening after a cozy meal! Next time, I’ll add 1.5 pears, as I loved the burst of sweetness and moisture from the chunks! Used an alkalized cocoa, but imagine a natural cocoa would bring out the fruity notes in the pear. Delish! Thank you for sharing!!
I am so glad you enjoyed it!
This was great! Made with cardamom instead of cinnamon but no other changes. Brought it to a dinner party and everyone loved it. The crunchy topping is wonderful!
Hi Gena! I’ve baked this once, it was amazingly moist 🙂 was looking at your note, and was wondering if you have tried substituting with a GF flour blend before? Thank you!!
I haven’t tried it myself with this cake, but if you use a blend you’ve had good results with in the past, I would imagine it’ll work nicely! Glad you enjoyed it.
This was absolutely amazing!! I made this recipe in mini brownie silicone molds as I always share cake with my work colleagues and they went down a real treat! Thank you so much for this truly delicious recipe, from everyone in my ambulance station 🙂
Hi Gena! 🙂
I’m wondering if I could make this with spelt? Totally fine that that means it would be be more dense than with all purpose but just wondering if I should use the same amount?
This looks lovely and I’m keen to try it this week I was wondering if it would work as muffins rather than one single cake? Would the oven temp or timings need altered?
Hi Catriona,
I think it might work. I’d try the same temperature for 22-25 minutes. I hope it turns out well!
G
Looks delicious. I will try to make a weekend. Thank you so much gena.
I made this and it came out so good! I used vegan chocolate chips on top and it worked perfectly. The cake is moist but fluffy and so delicious. Also if you don’t have a spring form pan, don’t worry! You can just use a glass pie dish and it will come out great, just remember to grease it. I would love to try this with strawberries instead of pear sometime.
Your cake looks so chocolaty! and yummy of course! Adding pear to the cake is a very new and interesting idea. I’m sure it will add a great flavor to it different from how every chocolate cake tastes like. Another interesting thing is that you have used maple syrup instead of the usual granulated sugar! I’m sure it will really enhance the flavor. Need to try this out very soon.
I love Dark chocolate alot, specially when I eat them into cake style. It’s not too sweet but enough 🙂
This cake is so nice, I’m thinking bout asking my bf to do it for me bc he’s very good at baking xD
By the way, the chocolate with the orange is so goodddd. How could you not love it :p
Ohhhh love the incorporation of the pear! Need to try this next time I need a sweet treat 🙂
The kind of cake we like in my home, we’re not big on frosting. This cake looks so delicious, I’m sure it won’t last very long in my house.
I had to buy a springform pan to make this cake and it was 100% worth it! It was so delicious! Incredibly moist and flavorful! Everyone I shared it with loved it! Thanks so much for the awesome recipe!
When you make the vanilla version of this cake, do you change anything other than leaving out the cocoa powder?
Hi Gena –
This is the first time I’ve had the courage to comment on your website. This week, I’ve been really enjoying eating this cake so I had to speak up!! It came together so quickly and easily. Pears are not in season here in Japan, so I used blueberries and a handful of walnuts – delicious. Can’t wait for the pear season to roll around – I can imagine just how delectable this combo will be. Thank you!!
This sounds amazing! I definitely want to make this.
Oh Gena, this is an absolutely lovely and scrumptious looking cake! I love the combo of chocolate and pears!! And it’s easy!! I think I am going to try and make this or a version of it for my daughter-in-law when her birthday rolls around in a few weeks. Thank you!!! xoxo
I’ve never thought to mix pears and chocolate. Looks delicious!
this looks dark, moist and delicious!
OH YUM!! What a beautiful way to celebrate love – for oneself and others (even if the others are not in the same room). I will be making this cake soon.
My goodness Gena you’re amazing. This looks incredible. The second the weather starts to cool down here in Aus i’m making this beautiful cake!
I love dark chocolate and I love cake without frosting, so you can say how much I am loving this particular cake of yours. And those pears in between.. delicious!
This looks incredible, Gena! Definitely trying this soon 🙂