A lovely pear cake, made with fresh pears, nestled in a lightly sweet and moist almond cake. A perfect cake to enjoy any time of day.
This lovely pear cake is not a cake with pears in it. It’s pears with some cake in it. It is classically Italian. It features 3 pears, peeled and halved that are placed on top of a thick batter flavoured with ground almonds. As it bakes, the pears sink in to the cake, just barely peeking out the top by the time it’s fully cooked. For the last few minutes of baking, it’s topped with a generous layer of sliced almonds, just to heighten the almond flavour.
This cake is lovely, moist and light, owing to the large amount of fruit. It’s also lightly sweetened, so it’s perfect to enjoy any time of day. For a special dessert, serve it topped with a dollop of whipped cream.
Ingredient Notes
Here are the simple ingredients you will need …
- Pears – If you can’t find fresh pears, canned or jarred pear halves would also work in this cake. For fresh pears, start with pears that are ripe, but still have firmness to them.
- Butter – you can use salted or unsalted butter. If using unsalted, you may want to add a small pinch of salt to the batter.
- White granulated sugar
- Eggs (2)
- All purpose flour – haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flour, though I suspect a cup-for-cup gluten free flour should work here. I haven’t tested with almond flour.
- Ground almonds – not almond flour, which is more finely ground. Ground almonds have the texture of cornmeal and are easily found in the baking section of most grocery stores. Alternately, you can process whole blanched almonds in a food processor.
- Baking powder
- Flaked almonds – also known as sliced almonds
- Icing sugar, for garnish
Recipe Video
Cook’s Notes
- Prepare the pears by first peeling, then slicing in half from the stem end to the bottom. Use a small spoon to scoop out the seeds and also remove the thin, tough spine that runs up to the stem end.
- As this cake is very moist and mostly pear, it is best enjoyed shortly on the day of baking.
- Enjoy this cake on its own or with a dollop of whipped cream. For a really special dessert, try some mascarpone, mixed with a bit of powdered sugar to sweeten and flavoured with a little orange zest.
- You can refrigerate any left-overs to stretch it to the next day.
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Get the Recipe: Italian Pear Almond Cake
Ingredients
- 9 Tablespoons (125 g) butter, salted or unsalted, at room temperature. If using unsalted, add a small pinch of salt to the batter (1/2 cup + 1 Tablespoon)
- 9 Tablespoons (125 g) white granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 6 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon (50 g) all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups (100 g) ground almonds, not almond flour
- 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3 medium pears, ripe, but still firm, peeled, cored and halved lengthwise
- 1/3 cup (50 g) flaked almonds
- Icing/confectioners' sugar, for garnish
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 375° F. (not fan assisted)
- Grease an 8-inch springform pan and line the bottom with a round of parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and white sugar together at medium speed until pale in colour and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the bowl between eggs (be sure to get all the way to the bottom of the bowl, where unincorporated butter can hide.. With the mixer on low, mix in the all purpose flour, ground almonds and baking powder. Spoon the batter into the prepared springform pan and use a spatula to even out the mixture. (Batter will be thick and fill the pan only to about an inch thick).
- Prepare pears, by peeling, then cutting in half from the stem end to the bottom. Use a small spoon to remove the core and also scrape away the thick spine that runs up to the stem end. Set aside.
- Arrange the pear halves in a circle on the top, cut side down and with the thin end towards the centre of the cake. Sprinkle flaked almonds over-top. Bake in pre-heated 375° oven for about 35 minutes, or until the cake tests clean when a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake.
- Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin, then run a knife around the outside and carefully remove the ring and base. Dust with icing/confectioners' sugar before serving.
Notes
More Pear Cake Recipes You Might Like …
Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Made this today.. and turned out great. Looks good and tastes even better:) The only changes I made was to slice up the pears a bit and instead of white sugar, I used coconut sugar, which gave a nice caramel hint to it. Thanks a lot for the recipe?
So glad you enjoyed it, Raunaq :) Thanks!
Hello !
Would really apriciate if all the ingredients were written in grams and mililiters. Thank you in advance. Looking forward to make this cake :)
Hi Rosie, below the list of ingredients there are links (in red) to switch between Imperial measures and Metric measures you can use to get this one in grams etc.
I had to comment because this cake is STUNNING! Absolutely wonderful I cannot fault it ❤❤❤❤
So glad to hear, Nikki. Thanks!
Made this and it was spectacular. Highly recommend it.
Thanks Shelley! So glad you enjoyed it :)
I’m a crap baker but this cake turned out beautifully! I used almond flour instead of regular flour to up the almond factor.
So glad to hear Joanne! (And that it works well with almond flour, too :) Thanks!
Well, I did something with your wonderful recipe that drives me crazy when others do it, I used the recipe as a jumping off point, with some crazy substitutions, but it worked out fine. I am gluten intolerant, so I substituted Pamela’s GF flour. Then I used 100 grams of almond meal, which a tiny bit finer than ground almonds. But the biggest change was to use 8 oz. unsalted butter, 1/4 cup pear preserves and 1/4 cup ginger preserves ( which is more like a marmalade in consistency) and 1/8 cup sugar for the full amount of sugar and butter. I added some vanilla extract, since I didn’t have almond extract. It was delicious (or to use the Italian, deliziosa!) The pears didn’t sink that far, since the batter may have been a bit thicker than your recipe, but still the cake was nice and moist. Thanks for the lovely inspiration. Happy New Year to you and all your readers
Lol Carol :) As long as it was delicious in the end, it’s all good!
Thank you for sharing such wonderful recipe!
I adore wheat but unfortunately it done st love me back… I know it is such a small amount, but If I were to prepare it with a gluten free flour mix, which substitutions for flour do you think might workor in this case?
Anybody…?
Thank you so much again, can’t wait to try it ?
Hi Siena and thanks :) Hoping someone who has tried a gluten-free version will weigh in, but I think you could easily use a cup-for-cup gluten free all-purpose flour in place of the wheat flour.
I used almond flour. Worked a treat.
This recipe was at the top of my Google search “pear and almond cake”, and I’m glad of it! It’s wonderfully delicious and easy to make. I halved the butter to 60g (a bit drastic, I know, but I figured the almonds have enough fat). And I extended the baking time to 40 minutes in a 7-inch springform (so 30 minutes then 10 more for the almond flakes). I guess my pears were a bit juicy and the batter needed more time to set. Thank you for posting. I will be making it again tomorrow (the last one didn’t last long!).
So glad you enjoyed this! One of my favourite things to bake in pear season :) Thanks!
This looks delish and I can’t wait to try it. Can you confirm no vanilla or almond extract needed? Thank you!
Hi Leigh, I don’t add either to this cake, though a touch of vanilla is never out of place if you feel you’d like a bit. I’ve never been a big fan of almond extract myself. Just a personal preference. I find it a bit over-powering in most dishes.
Hey there!
I was wondering if I can use almond flour in place of the ground almonds?
Thank you!
Hi Mar, I think you should be able to, but I haven’t tested that.
Hello Jennifer,
I have loads of pears to use from our Allotement tree, and found your recipe for the Italian Pear Almond Cake, which looks delicious !
I am planning to make a few cakes with this recipe but will need to freeze, will this be ok ?
Also I’m wondering as I plan to freeze it, if I should cook the cake, just for the 25mins then freeze ! and then when I need the cake, defrost and finish it off with the sprinkling of flaked almonds and cook for the additional 8-10mins ?
Look forward to hearing back from you with your advise ! !
Thanking you in advance
Sylvia.
Hi Sylvia, I am jealous of all your pears :) As for this cake, I have never frozen it, so I have no idea how it holds up. That said, my most recent pear recipe on my blog (French Pear Cake) I did freeze and was surprised at how well the pear held up. Based on that, I’m thinking you might just be ok baking fully and freezing. Enjoy! – Jennifer
I’ve made this cake a number of times and I always receive positive comments.
I was wondering if I could use morello cherries instead of pears as I have a jar in the pantry.
Hi Lila and thanks :) I think the flavours of this cake would be lovely with cherries. The only difference I see is that unless you put a ton of cherries in the cake, it will be more cake than cherries, which is totally fine, just different from the pear cake (which is more pear than cake). Still good, just different!
Hi Jennifer,
The recipe sounds delicious! Is it OK to substitute almond flour for regular flour?
Hi Toni, I don’t think so. You could use gluten free flour in place of the regular flour though.
Best cake I’ve ever made!!
Thanks so much, Rachel! Thanks for coming back to let me know :)
hi! does the cake need to cool completely b4 taking it out? at what temp do u recommend to serve it? i like my desserts warm :P
Hi Sylvia, If you make it in a springform pan, you can run a knife around the edge and remove the outer ring after it has cooled only a bit, for sure. Getting it off the bottom probably requires a bit more cooling, but no reason you can’t serve, slice with it still on the ring, as shown in the photos. It is lovely warm or at room temperature, so you can go either way.