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!
Hi Jennifer, I came across your website when I was looking for a pear cake recipe. Such a delicious and beautiful looking cake. My daughter said it looked like restaurant standard! So very pleased I tried your recipe. I have subscribed to your website and I am looking forward to trying out more recipes.
So glad you enjoyed it, Helen :) Thanks so much and happy cooking!
Amazing cake! Perfect to top off a big meal. So light and refreshing and would be delightful any time of day. I used almond flour by weight measurement and Bob’s 1:1 GF flour to replace all purpose. Added pear liquor and almond extract. Had pears that were riper then I would have liked, but turned out beautifully in 8 inch springform. Baked 35min. Wa La!
So glad to hear, Lynne :) Thanks so much!
Can I ask what weight almond flour you used? I’d rather just do that than try to buy and grind almonds. Thanks!
Hi Coryn, if you click the “Metric” at the bottom of the ingredient list, it will give you weights for all the ingredients. It’s 100g of ground almonds.
H,
I’m wondering how this would work with vegan butter and egg replacer to make it vegan friendly. I’ve made it before as the recipe says ands its so good. We have a guest coming that’s vegan and am curios what you think.
Thank you.
Hi Michel, I don’t think the vegan butter will be an issue. I’m not as sure about the egg replacer. There is a little baking powder in the recipe, so it’s not leavened entirely by the eggs, but maybe a bit? I have never tried egg replacer, so I’m not sure how it performs in baking. I feel like this recipe would be pretty forgiving though, and even if not quite as light in texture, it wouldn’t be bad :) If you try it, let me know how it works out.
Thanks! I’ll keep you posted!
Michael don’t leave us hanging. We are all on the edge of our seats.
Looking forward to trying this, did the vegan version work? I have previously used coconut oil instead of butter in cakes but no experience yet of egg replacement.
Loved this simple cake, and so did the birthday girl. I made mine with the almond and hazelnut flour I had on hand and they worked beautifully.Thanks for sharing this recipe!
So glad to hear, Deb :) Thanks so much!
I would like to try this recipe but don’t have a spring form pan. Could I use a pie pan and serve it from there? I’m sure it wouldn’t be as pretty but just wondering if it would work in a pinch.
Thanks, Tammy
Hi Tammy and sure, a pie plate would work. Hopefully it’s a deeper one though, as a short one might not hold all the batter. Enjoy!
i love pears !!! …. and this recipe looks very nice and simple !!!
can’t wait to make it this weekend !!! thank you so much for posting it
Hi Edye and yes, it’s both simple and delicious. My favourite pear season bake :) Enjoy!
Thank you for sharing this recipe, it’s so simple and extremely delicious – my type of dessert! Jennifer, could I possibly ask your advice on how/if you would recommend reheating this whole cake to serve slightly warm at dinner party, if I were to make the cake earlier that day?
Hi Helen and so glad you enjoyed the cake. For re-heating, if the cake is already on a serving plate, the easiest way to re-warm would be in the microwave. Alternately, if you leave the cake on the springform base, you could set on top of a baking sheet, set a sheet of aluminum foil over the top (to prevent any browning) and pop into a 350F oven for 10-ish minutes. Then you could transfer to a serving plate from there (a parchment round under the cake will help a lot here).
Hi Jennifer, this is so helpful – thank you for your speedy response!
This is one of my favorite recipes to use up the pears from our over productive pear tree. I added rum extract, cardamom, and a pinch of cinnamon because I love that paring with this wonderful fruit!
Sounds lovely, Amy :) So glad you are enjoying it. Thanks so much!
Can I use margarine instead of butter. I don’t like the butter flavour
Hi Anna, margarine only really works as a substitute for butter in a baking recipe that uses melted butter. In this case, the butter is creamed with the sugar and margarine just doesn’t perform the same way. While it make “work”, it will definitely affect the finished texture of the cake.
I made this recipe last weekend and made a huge mistake by adding 3 eggs instead of two; also I only had canned pears. Otherwise, I followed the recipe as written. Even w/my egg issue and canned pears it was absolutely delicious. I’m going to try it again this weekend with 2 eggs as called for and stick w/the canned pears. Thanks for a great recipe!
I’ve found this cake is very forgiving :) So glad it was all good in the end for you, too! Thanks so much.
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!