Ingredients:
300 g lady fingers
1 can pear compote (or 4 large poached Williams pears)
Crème No. 1
200 ml sweet cream
100 g dark chocolate
1 tbsp cocoa powder
Crème No. 2
200 g mascarpone cheese
200 ml sweet cream
3-4 tbsp icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Method:
You will first need to make crème No. 1.
Chop the chocolate. Bring the cream to a boil and remove from heat. Add the cocoa powder and the chopped chocolate and leave to rest for 1 minute. Stir hastily until uniform. Leave to cool completely (1 hour in a cold place, or dip the ganache crème into a large bowl filled with ice-cold water and ice and stir until cold).
Drain the pears, reserving the liquid.
Dip the lady fingers in the liquid and arrange on the bottom and the sides of a heart-shaped cake tin (or use a regular cake tin 🙂 …).
Dice the pears.
Beat the ganache with a mixer and pour over the lady fingers. Arrange the pear chunks and top with another layer of ladyfingers dipped into the liquid.
Refrigerate while preparing crème No. 2.
Beat the mascarpone cheese, icing sugar and vanilla with a mixer. Add the sweet cream and beat until firm. Pour on top of the cake and trowel.
Use the remaining crème to decorate the rim of the cake by using a pastry bag with a star nozzle.
Refrigerate for at least 3 hours (even better – overnight).
