Pear Cake (Using Fresh Whole Pears – No Peeling Necessary)
Pear cake will be your number one recipe for using fresh pears! Use the whole pear because no peeling is necessary which makes it super easy, and incredibly delicious. Everyone will ask for the recipe!
Get ready to bookmark this fresh pear cake recipe!
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What to do with lots of Pears?
Make pear cake! Once you make it once, you’re going to want to make this cake over and over again. How do I know? Because this recipe base which comes from this Sicilian whole orange cake is fabulous, no matter what fruit I use in it!
Most recently, I tried the cake with fresh apples and oh boy, it was fantastic. In fact, it kind of went viral and was one of my top recipes right after I posted it. The apple cake was so good, it inspired me to try a pear cake! It has a fabulous texture and is incredibly moist! The other reason everyone loves it is because it’s so darned easy to make! No need to peel the fresh pears in this recipe (but do use organic fruit for this reason).
Let me tell you, everyone who has tried the apple cake and the pear cake has raved about them! In fact, I recently made an apple and pear cake, using fresh apples and pears together (twice) and it was really good, too! I dropped one off for a friend and she said her family loved it and thanked me for the “amazing cake”!
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the only thing you’ll want to make with pears as they are such a magnificent (and I think, underappreciated) fruit. You may remember my mother’s poached pears in wine recipe, well, this cake is almost as easy!
Can you Freeze Pear Cake?
Yes, you can absolutely freeze this fresh pear cake, as I’ve frozen all the fruit cakes made using this recipe and it freezes exceptionally well! I wouldn’t keep it in the freezer longer than a month, though.
I’ve since added another pear cake to my site, this delicious honey pear cake!
As you can see, my pears weren’t even close to being perfect, but the cake still tasted marvelous!
Let’s get to the recipe, shall we? You’re going to love it!
Pear Cake
slightly adapted from my apple cake recipe serves 10
FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW
Make the Batter
Prepare an 8″ springform pan by spraying with oil (or butter) and lining in parchment paper (sides optional, only if you want really clean sides), then spray the paper, too.
In a food processor, or blender, process the pear pieces (do not peel unless they’re not organic) and lemon juice. My pears were quite soft, so this puréed result is fine.
Place the sugar and eggs in a large bowl and beat with a mixer until light and fluffy. Sift the flour with the baking powder then add to the mixture in the bowl a little at a time along with the softened butter. Continue to mix until completely blended, then stir in the yogurt.
Add the processed pears to the cake batter along with vanilla, and stir until evenly combined.
That’s it, you’re done! Now pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake the Pear Cake
Place the tin into the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes (depending on your oven), but test with a cake tester or skewer to make sure the pear cake is done before removing from the oven. If desired, sprinkle lightly with some granulated, Demerara or raw sugar immediately. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes, then remove the side of the springform pan.
Serve the Pear Cake.
Let cool before cutting and serving.
You can really taste the pear (don’t be tempted to add spices before making this recipe as written first). Nothing wrong with eating a slice while it’s still a wee bit warm!
Or you can be more civilized and serve it on a plate with cutlery!
Any way you serve it-it’s fabulous!
And one last pear recipe for you from my friend, Cynthia: Poire Belle Hélène (poached pears with chocolate).
Pear Cake (Using Whole Pears - No Peeling Necessary)
Special Equipment
- 1 8" springform pan
- 1 food processor (or blender)
- 1 cake tester
Ingredients
- 3 large pears (organic)
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 3 eggs
- 1 ⅛ cup sugar
- 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour (plain flour in the UK)
- 2 ½ tsp baking powder or 1 packet Italian Paneangeli vanilla baking powder
- ⅓ cup butter softened
- ⅓ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp sugar to sprinkle on top (optional)
Instructions
Make the Pear Cake Batter:
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C)
- Prepare an 8" springform pan by spraying with oil (or butter) and lining in parchment paper (sides optional, if you want really clean sides), then spray the paper, too.
- Wash, core and cut the pear(s) into pieces.
- In a food processor or blender, process the pear pieces and lemon juice until it is almost pureed.
- Place the sugar and eggs in a large bowl and beat with a mixer until light and fluffy. Sift the flour with the baking powder then add to the mixture in the bowl a little at a time along with the softened butter. Continue to mix until completely blended, then stir in the yogurt.
- Add the processed pears and vanilla to the cake batter and stir until evenly combined.
- Pour into prepared cake tin.
Bake the Cake:
- Bake for 50-60 minutes (depending on your oven), but test with a cake tester or skewer to make sure the pear cake is done before removing from the oven. If desired, sprinkle lightly with some granulated sugar immediately. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes, then remove the side of the springform pan.
- Let cool before cutting and serving.
- The cake can stand on its own, but you can also serve it with a fruit sauce, dollop of whipped cream, custard or vanilla ice cream. I prefer it plain with a cup of tea!
Notes
- Do not peel, but remove the core/seeds pears should be just ripe, not overly ripe, or underripe
- It's important to weigh ingredients in this recipe.
Nutrition
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I’m sorry my comment upset you. I made this cake recipe three times because I really liked the idea and the flavour, and was determined to succeed. The first attempt yielded a pudding, not a cake. As I was making it the third time, using the weight measurements only, I noticed that the numbers given for the cup/weight did not match up, and looking through the comments, you keep asking “did you use a scale?”. Perhaps the thousands of people who are succeeding, as I did on my third attempt, are using only the weight measurements? Can you explain your reason for the discrepancies? You say my comment is completely false, but I have double checked all my conversions, and they are not the same as yours.
Thanks for apologizing, Rachel. If you knew how much time and effort goes into all my recipes and the years of responding to readers who have all made this recipe and loved it, you would understand why reading your erroneous warning to others upset me.
The only thing that can make the difference in this cake is the difference in the type of pear, and how dry or wet/ripe it is. Therefore, the only way to get 300g of pears is to use a scale. Regarding the other ingredients, the cups measurements are fine, despite being different than grams. I have written it this way to avoid a recipe that reads something like 1 ⅓ cups + 2 Tbsp plus 1.5 tsp of flour. I refuse to do that (if it’s that critical, I say to use a scale and do not add cups-like my doughnut recipe).
As I said before, your conversions will be different than my conversions, which will be different than another’s conversions because cups are innately inaccurate. However, for this recipe, cups are fine because of the fact that this recipe is extremely forgiving. People have added, skipped and changed so many ingredients and still raved about the results. As I said, there are over 1000 reviews on JUST the orange cake, and I have made this recipe countless times and NEVER had a failure.
No need to post this comment. I find it interesting that after telling me my comment was erronious and false, you went and changed the recipe. Perhaps you weren’t so right? I think you were unduly rude in response, but I should have said it didn’t work for me, not that it did not work.
I honestly hate spending so much time going back and forth on my measurements because THEY WORK. I am fastidious about the measurements, and am not making up recipes to match a photo as some people do. I stand by my previous comment that your comment was erroneous, however, I’m tired of these comments about the measurements whatever small change I made was to try to avert them.
I hate to ignore comment from readers, but simply don’t have the time to continue responding to comments on a recipe that is solid (as stated, the rave reviews on all of the variations of this recipe speak volumes). I won’t be publishing any more comments on this thread I simply don’t have the time.
I sounds fabulous. can t wait to try it.
Made this recipe tonight. The cake turned out super dense. Don’t know what went wrong. Was i supposed to cream the butter and sugar first like normal butter cake?
Eventhough dense and heavy, it’s still delicious. Just unlike your pic.
No sorry, not sure why that happened, the directions are correct. Did you use a scale? I’m glad it tastes good at least!
I just made the cake and had the same issue..followed exact same method and ingredients. It’s very dense not air and soft sponge like in the picture
Hi Sara, did you use a scale? Also, it’s not a super light and airy cake. I think maybe the cake is turning out as it should but people are expecting a very light sponge cake, which this is not. I am making the cake again with a different type of pear this week to see if the pear variety makes a difference, however, I doubt it will because I have made this cake with so many different fruits and there’s never an issue. Orange cake, apple cake, peach cake and lemon cake all turn out the same.
EDIT: I just made the cake again and I am guessing you maybe didn’t use a scale and used 3 pears? Maybe that made the batter too wet? If you used a scale it shouldn’t have been an issue. I also removed 10 g from the yogurt, but that really won’t make any difference.
I’ve used 4 pears.. how many pears goes in? I’m determined to make it again today actually because I have some spare pears.. also what can u substitute Greek yogurt for? Only have some plain white yogurt in the fridge
Thank you
Hi Sara, do you have a scale? Depending on the size (weight) of your pears, I cannot say a number of pears. Regular yogurt is much more runny. It may work, but if it’s too runny it may change the texture of the cake and how it rises. Combine that with the pear issue and you may run into a cake that doesn’t turn out. A scale is your best bet. (If you have labne or sour cream, that’s a better alternative for the Greek yogurt).
There is a discrepancy between cup measures given and the weight measures. If you use all weight measures as given, it is a lovely cake. If you mix, or use the cup measure, especially for the flour, it doesn’t work. 1 3/4 cup flour measures between 210-218g. 1 1/8 cup sugar is 225g. Hope that helps!
This is completely false, Rachel. The cake turns out perfect using cups or weight measurements AS WRITTEN. I have a reason for the amounts listed for each one, cups and metric work perfectly for this recipe.
This cake (with these measurements) has been made with fabulous results literally THOUSANDS of times as my Sicilian orange cake, lemon cake, peach cake and apple cake. Please do not tell people “it doesn’t work” if you use the cups. It’s very unfair to me and to those who you are advising.
Hi I’m wondering if I can substitute butter for oil?
I think the cake won’t have the same crumb if you do so. I haven’t tried, so I can’t really say, Violeta.
Can this be done as a tray bake or would I need to double up ingredients
I haven’t done it in a sheet pan, and do think it would not be enough, Shiela. Can’t say for sure as I’m not at home.
I pureed my pears before finding your recipe. Would love to try your cake, but would like to know an approximate measurement of the pears (or fruit) after you have blended it.
Oh my!
This cake is delicious!
Thank you for this recipe
Made it without any changes, great with a cup of tea,
I did add a sprinkle of sugar on top and waited 15 min before removing from the pan
Will definitely make this again
We did use ripe pears from our backyard.
Forgot to mention , used a 9inch round spring pan but it was flat, seems like it didn’t rise.
I’ll try again
May have to get an 8 inch soon
Yes, a 9″ pan will yield a lower profile cake, but don’t expect this one to rise a ton. It’s not a typical light sponge cake. It has a heavier, moist texture, which is probably what you got (sounds like you did it right)! :)
Thank you Christina!
We love it,
I made this cake today with pears from my tree and it was absolutely delightful! I used a little more pear and subbed sour cream for the yogurt since I didn’t have any. I am glad you suggested trying it as is without adding spices. I was tempted to add some but didn’t and it is such a wonderful flavor on its own. Great recipe, thank you! Oh, and so glad I didn’t have to peel the pears!
This makes me so happy to hear, Jade! Thank you so much for letting me know (and if you can click on the 5 stars in the recipe card, I’d really appreciate it, but only if it’s not a bother)! Thank you again! CC
Hi just wondering if I can substitute yoghurt for something else?
Sour cream, creme fraiche or labne works.