Poach the pears:

In a large saucepan, combine the pears, wine, sugar, cloves, star anise, cardamom, and cinnamon and poach for 30 minutes over low heat

Take the pears out of the liquid and set aside to cool

Add 500ml water to the poaching liquid and boil to reduce the liquid by half. Set aside and let cool

Make the cake:

Preheat the oven to 170°C

Grease 1.5l loaf pan and line it with baking paper and grease the baking paper

Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until creamy

Beat in the eggs one at the time and beat well after each addition

Add the vanilla extract and beat well

Sift the flour and salt over the batter and fold it in

Spoon the batter into the pan

Press the pears in, stem end up

Bake for 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the cake part comes out clean

Allow to cool in the pan, then gently remove the cake from the pan to a rack to cool completely

Before serving, set a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water

Stir the chocolate in the bowl until melted

Using a spoon, drizzle the chocolate over the cake and create nice stripes on top

Let the chocolate dry for a bit and serve the cake in thick slices, with the reduced pear syrup poured on top