Either as you heat the oven (see below) or if making ahead, first pit the cherries - you can use a pitter but I find it just as easy to cut with a knife around the middle, twist to split open then remove the stone. Cut the cherries into quarters and place in a small saucepan with the sugar, water and lemon juice.

Place the saucepan on the stove on a medium heat and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat slightly and simmer for around 5 - 10 minutes until the cherries are relatively soft, but still hold their shape.

Mix the cornstarch with 1 tsp water to form a smooth slurry. Gradually add a little at a time to the cherry mixture and stir constantly to incorporate it. It will start to thicken - once it reaches the thickness you want, stop adding the cornstarch mixture and remove from the heat.

Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Put an 8in/20cm cast iron or non stick skillet/frying pan in the oven to heat up as the oven heats.

Use a blender or whisk together the pancake ingredients (egg, flour, cocoa powder, milk, sugar and salt - note NOT the butter) until smooth. Leave the mixture to sit for a few minutes and you may find you get little pockets of cocoa powder rise to the top (as in photo above) - use a spatula to stir and smooth as many of these lumps as you can (you can press against the side of the bowl) to make a smoother batter.

Once the oven has reached temperature, add the butter to the skillet. Put the skillet back in the oven to let the butter melt and become foamy. You should start to smell the butter become slightly nutty.

Once the butter has melted and is bubbly and starting to brown very slightly, pour the pancake batter into the middle of the pan. Immediately put the pan back in the oven and leave to bake for approx 16-18 minutes until the pancake has puffed up around the edges (and often in the middle a bit too). The batter should look dry, other than where the butter is.

Don't worry, the pancake will likely deflate a little almost immediately, and may have butter on top when you take it out the oven - this will soak in to the pancake to keep it moist. Top the pancake with the mascarpone then the cherry compote. You may not need all. If you like, add a few shavings of chocolate on top before serving warm.