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
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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 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 :)
I made this recently and it was AMAZING! I’d love to make again for a birthday but was wondering could I slightly twist this to have an upside down aspect to it. So put a little caramel in the bottom of the tin, put the pears at the bottom and the mixture over the top. The invert after baking, would that work?
Hi Sonali and thanks! I think you could give it a try. I think I would line the pan with parchment, as it’s a fairly soft cake and I wouldn’t risk flipping it out without a good lining in the pan to help :) If you try it, let me know how it works out.
Delicious and light thank you so much .
So glad you enjoyed it Aminah! Thanks so much :)
What a lovely and unique dessert! A perfect balance and not too cloyingly sweet . I look forward to making this for family and friends.
Glad to hear, Kate. Thanks so much :)
Hi, are the nutrions e.g. kcal per whole cake, 100g or a slice? Thank you
Hi Lucia, The nutritional information is per serving. As written, it is for 8 servings, so if you cut your finished cake into 8 even slices, the nutrition would be for 1 slice.
Such a wonderful cake… I made it just as intended and it was so delicious. Light and delicate flavor thats not too sweet. Thank you so much for posting this fabulous recipe💕💕💕
So glad you enjoyed it, Lynn! And I’m loving those hearts :) Thanks!
This is an amazing cake! I tried it using a gluten free flour blend and it might just be our new favourite dessert.Thank you!
So happy to hear, Jennifer :) Thanks so much!
I made this cake yesterday. Delicious, but a big question – it came out soggy in the middle and I couldn’t tell if it was underdone or it was just the pears. I added nearly 5 minutes of cooking time and still soggy. All ingredients were at room temperature going in, I’m pretty sure my oven is accurate and yes, did use ground almonds. I want to make it again for Xmas and want to be sure it comes out right. Any thoughts?
Hi Helen, A couple of thoughts. My first thought was undercooked a touch. The timing will vary depending on how moist the pears are. Secondly, were your pears super ripe or just ripe. I find the best results with this cake is with just ripe pears. Hope that helps.
Does this cake freeze well? My pears are ready now, but I want the cake for two weeks from now.
Hi Julie, I haven’t frozen it myself, but I understand it will freeze. It may be slightly more moist on thawing.
Yummy cake, thank you for the recipe. Easy to make and delicious.
Only suggestion I have is to include European measures grams and millilitres, that would be so helpful? I often give up on cake if I have to convert, luckily not on this occasion.
Yummy
So glad you enjoyed it, Ivana! While my recipe card software has the capability of converting recipes for grams, I have discovered that it’s not completely reliably accurate, so I haven’t activated it as I don’t want to deliver an inaccurate recipe to anyone. So until I remember to weigh ingredients as I bake, I have to stick with what I know :)
Delicious! Great recipe, thank you!
Thanks so much, Kate :)