Flourless chocolate amaretto pear cake

I wanted to make a wheat-free cake for my sister and any other coeliac party-goers at Mum's house-warming tonight. This is my adaptation of a BBC Good Food recipe, with Amaretto and almonds instead of the original recipe's brandy and hazelnuts - I think that would be lovely too, but I used the ingredients I had in the kitchen.

Ingredients

3oz butter (plus extra for greasing)

3oz golden caster sugar (plus extra for the tin)

3oz dark chocolate, broken into pieces

1 tbsp Amaretto

3 eggs, separated

3oz ground almonds

3 large, ripe pears

Icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C and grease and line a 9inch loose-bottomed cake tin with melted butter.  
2. Sprinkle 2 tbsp caster sugar onto the greased tin and swirl it around to coat the base and sides, then tip out any excess.
3. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of hot water.
4. Remove from the heat, stir in the Amaretto and leave to cool.
5. In a large bowl, beat the whites until they reach a soft peak making sure they don’t become too stiff.
6. In a separate, large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and thick.
7. Peel, halve and core the pears.
8. Add the ground almonds and chocolate into the egg yolk mixture and fold together with a metal spoon until well combined.
9. Stir a spoonful of the egg whites into the chocolate mix, then carefully fold in the rest of them in 2 additions.
10. Spoon into the prepared tin and level the mixture.
11. Arrange the pears over the mixture, cut-side down.
12. Bake for 40 mins until the pears are soft and the cake is cooked all the way through.
13. Leave to cool in the tin slightly before releasing it, then place on a rack to cool completely.
14. Dust with icing sugar before serving.