• Place dark chocolate in a heat-proof bowl and melt over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring regularly until smooth. Pour onto a baking pan. Using an offset palette knife, spread as thinly as possible. Place this in the fridge for 3-4 minutes or until set. Scrape the chocolate with a spatula or scraper off the pan to make curls. They don’t need to be perfect and can be stored in the fridge until needed. Mold size: Spring form 16 x 8 cm.
• Combine the chocolate and carnation milk in a saucepan and stir over a gentle heat until melted. Then pour into a medium-sized bowl and allow to cool.
• To make this dessert, use a 16cm x 8 cm springform cake tin lined with baking paper. Firstly, spoon a little of the vanilla cream onto the bottom of the cake tin. Using the back of a spoon, spread the mixture all over until it is 5 cm thick.
• Working in small batches, drop six Savoiardi biscuits into the chocolate sauce. Quickly submerge each biscuit to ensure that it is well coated. Remove, allowing the surplus to run off, and then place them onto the cream. Repeat until the bottom is covered with biscuits. Spoon over two tablespoons of sauce and sprinkle over a third of diced pears.
• Repeat this twice, finishing with a layer of cream. Place in the fridge and leave overnight.
• To serve, remove the cake from the pan, top it with a layer of chocolate curls, and dust it with cocoa powder and icing sugar

FOR THE VANILLA CREAM

• Whip the cream, icing sugar, and vanilla essence together to form soft peaks.