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.
Get the Recipe: Italian Pear Almond Cake
A delicious and easy pear cake, that's more pears than cake. Moist and lightly sweet, it is perfect for any time of day. Best enjoyed on the day it's baked.
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
Be sure to read the "Ingredient and Cook's Notes" above the recipe card for more tips on making this recipe.
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 310kcal, Carbohydrates: 30g, Protein: 6g, Fat: 20g, Saturated Fat: 8g, Cholesterol: 65mg, Sodium: 107mg, Potassium: 136mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 17g, Vitamin A: 387IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 65mg, Iron: 1mg
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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!
I seriously adore this recipe. Since discovering it less than a year ago I must have made it twenty times or more. It reminds me of Frangipani without all the trouble. The only thing I changed was the addition of a little pure vanilla and pure almond extract.
Thanks for sharing this delectable recipe with us!
So glad you are enjoying it, Lissa :) Thanks so much!
I made it with some ripe pears and it was easy to make a delicious. Now I’m making it with peaches as I ran out of pears. I’m sure it will be just as delicious. I’ve shared the recipe with several already who are planning on making it with this season’s pears. Thanks!
So glad you are enjoying it, Wendy :) Let me know how it is with peaches (I’ve never tried that). Thanks so much!
This is a wow! So simple but amazing. I sub the Trader Joe’s gluten free all purpose flour for dietary needs and no impact to texture. I’ve made this at least 6 times now! One is baking as I write this!
So glad to hear, Prem and great to know it’s just as nice with GF flour :) Thanks so much!
PERFECT
Added cardamon and ginger to it too. Make this atleast 1 time a month and it all goes within a day. Thanks!!!
So glad to hear, Miia :) Thanks so much!
just curious if i don’t have ground almond or almond flour handy in the pantry, will all purpose plain flour substitute fine? :) thanks
Hi Charis, I haven’t tried it, so I can’t say for sure. Certainly you could sub plain flour for the almond, I’m just not completely sure that it would be in the same amount. If you try it, let me know how it works :)
Thanks for the reply!!! I will give it a try :) have a good day!
I’ve made this so many times for special occasions for my mom, she loves it! It’s so easy to whip up!!
So glad you are all enjoying it, Charlotte :) Thanks so much!
Hi
I was wondering why I couldn’t see that tab to change to different measurements for instant to see grams instead of spoons or cup :(
Me and my family love this cake :)
Thanks
Hi Ed, I had to turn off the Metric conversion, as there were just too many errors in the automatic conversion. I just can’t have a bunch of recipes out there that don’t work due to those kind of errors and I have far too many recipes to go back and verify them all. That said, I have added back the gram measures for this particular recipe (in parenthesis), as I know these measurements are correct.
Many thanks 😊
This cake is delicious! I’m not a super sweet fan but love a bit sweets after meal, this cake hit the spot with natural sweet and juicy of the pear. Thank you for sharing.
So glad you enjoyed it, Cathy :) Thanks!
Have you ever used Gluten Free flour with this recipe?
Hi Jane and no, I haven’t personally, though I do recall some comments that indicated using 1-for-1 cup gluten free flour works fine with this recipe.
Delicious and moist, I added a small drop of Almond extract to enhance the pear flavour and used maple syrup instead of sugar, about a third less. Big hit all around..
So glad to hear, Sinead :) Thanks!
Absolutely perfect. I’m about to make it for the second time. Im making one and a half times of the batter because I prefer a thicker cake but this is absolutely delicious!
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much :)
Hi Jennifer,
This sounded like such a divine recipe so I tried it a few months back with half the ingredients just to test it. It was absolutely amazing!
I’m planning to make the full recipe for a friend’s birthday tomorrow and just realized you said “ground almonds” I remember I used blanched almond flour. Could you please explain the difference? Thank you!
Hi! Ground almonds are coarse, like cornmeal. Almond flour is almonds that have been further processed down to a powder. I have only ever made this cake with ground almonds, which provide a nice texture to the cake. I understand that several people have made it with almond flour and that seems to work. I imagine the resulting cake has a finer texture.
Thank you!
Also do you use cold butter from fridge or softened butter?
Thanks
As per the ingredient list, the butter should be at room temperature (so softened).
Hi again.
Sorry to ask another questions so I’ve just baked this today – full recipe and it took forever to cook through. The sides got done by tube middle was so wet even after 35 minutes so I cooked it for almost an hour. The one thing I did was to use unto ripe pears. Could that have made a difference to the cooking time? I should have thought it through and gotten the pears and ripened them before cooking. Please advise your thoughts and also re the temp of the butter should it have been Cold from the fridge or softened. We will see the taste when my friend cut it later tonight. Thank you
If the pears were very ripe, the amount of liquid (juice) in the cake will increase and probably the reason you had to bake it longer.
Hi Jennifer,
Glad it was softened butter so that’s good.
I meant I used unripe pears…. instead of ripened pears? So why then did I need to cook longer as the pears are still pretty hard although the cake looks beautiful. Would love to share a pic. Let me know how I can send it. Thank you.
Ahh, so yes, that’s why they are still hard after being in the oven that long. If you start with ripe pears, they will soften nicely. Not sure why it took the extra time in the oven. Could be any number of reasons.
So I made this cake twice, both times delicious! My pears were not too ripe so I peeled them and sliced in half and placed them cut side down in my corning wear with a little water and lid, then steemed them in micro for one minute. They came out perfect. Then I sliced them very thin, keeping the pear in tact. This was nice because eating the cake allowed nice small manageable pear bites on fork.
Sounds lovely Dolores. So glad you are enjoying it :) Thanks so much!
What a fantastic cake! I used a 9″ springform, kept quantities the same, and baked for about 5 minutes less at slightly lower temperature. I ended up using 3-1/2 pears, but mine were small. Also sprinkled on a little cinnamon before the almond slices and it received rave reviews. This is a definite keeper!
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much :)
Can you freeze this cake?
I haven’t frozen it, but I think it would freeze well.
Are we cutting the pears in half once? Or multiple times? Just halved or more?
Hi Odessa and yes, just cut the pears in half once.
hi. can you use almond flour instead of ground almonds?
Hi Anna, I haven’t tested this recipe with almond flour, so I can’t say if it would work or not.
this is one of my most favourite cakes. We love to have it on a Sunday morning warm with creme fraiche and a nice coffee..
Today i have decided to make cupcakes with it instead of a cake, and with chopped peaches.. i want to make double the recipe but the button isn’t working, is everything literally doubled?
thanks again for such an awesome recipe
Hi Jo and yes, sorry about the doubling button. It works fine on desktop, but not on mobile at the moment. I am still troubleshooting to try and fix that. But yes, simply double everything :)
I loved this recipe and it turned out perfectly well for me .
Thank you 😊
P
So glad to hear, Pria :) Thanks so much!
Hi Jo,
How did this recipe turn out using peaches? I was thinking of trying it with tinned peaches so I’m interested to hear if it was nice. Thanks!
Super tasty and easy to make. I made it in an 8in square pan because I don’t have an 8in springform pan. Will definitely be making this again. I can see why it has such great reviews.
So glad you enjoyed it, Izzy :) Thanks so much!
So easy to make and tastes wonderful. This is one I will be making regularly. Thank you so much for this recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it, Sandra! Thanks so much :)
Thank you for sharing such a fine desert – it is definitely one of my go-to cakes – so easy to put together, looks and taste divine!! I use almond flour, olive oil and honey instead of butter and white sugar.
I discovered this cake after my desperately felt short-changed of the hospital deserts last April, determined to find a nice ‘French Almond Tart’ that I thought I was getting then I found yours…..
Thank you :-)
So glad to hear, Sutza :) Thanks so much!
How Much honey did you use ?
I love this easy, fruit-filled cake/dessert topped with crisp almond slivers. I made it because I had some pears which needed to be used but I’ll be buying pears just to make this in future. I can see tuis recipe working with apricots(even the ones which refuse to ripen).
So glad you enjoyed it, April :) And yes, it would be nice with apricots, too! Thanks!
Wow! What a fantastic cake! I also only had a 9” springform, so I adjusted by adding 1/3 as the commenter above described (thank you!) I only used three pears, the fourth pear did not fit. Cooking time was closer to 50 min, but adding the almonds at 25 min was fine. I also didn’t have quite enough almond flour, so I measured by weight and used regular flour for the balance. I added a few drops of almond extract at the request of my husband. Just a wonderful cake. Perfect for breakfast or mid morning snack or lunch dessert or afternoon snack or fancy evening dessert. Thank you for sharing such a special recipe!
So glad you enjoyed it :) Thanks!
Terrific cake – I added 1/3 of every ingredient to fit a 9″ springform. Easy, not too sweet. I will try with peaches next :-) thank you
Glad you enjoyed it, Julie :) Thanks so much!
Hi, what do you do with the optional mascarpone? Serve it on the side? Or bake it with the cake? Thanks!
Hi Jeni, it is an optional topping to serve on the cake.
Can this be baked in a tin foil pie dish?
Hi Pam, You might be able to make it work, but fear that it won’t be big enough to hold it all. You may need to use less pears and hold back a bit of better. You’ll have to use your best judgement there :)